Students identified as key group in Beijing outbreak

Beijing has registered more than 100 COVID-19 cases in the latest outbreak and more than 30 percent of those infected are from schools and kindergartens, a senior official said on Wednesday.

The city reported 42 new locally transmitted confirmed cases and four new asymptomatic carriers between 4 pm on Tuesday and 3 pm on Wednesday. The city's total infections hit 138 since Friday and involve eight districts, said the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

"By 3 pm on Wednesday, students and children from kindergartens account for 31 percent of the total number of patients, involving six schools and two kindergartens," Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the center, said at a news conference on Wednesday. "One school in Chaoyang district had registered 36 cases so far."

"Schools have a relatively big number of people and some students have been to many other venues, especially after-school training institutions, which has increased the transmission risks," she added.

Tongzhou district reported three new cases from three different schools on Wednesday while Fangshan district reported two new cases from a middle school and a child-care institution.

In Tongzhou, all kindergartens and primary, middle and secondary vocational schools have suspended on-campus classes starting on Wednesday and switched to online instructions. All the training institutions outside schools should stop offline courses, added Dong Minghui, deputy head of the district.

As Beijing is taking all measures to contain the outbreak, the city's public security bureau has placed 40 cases on file related to the epidemic, Pan Xuhong, deputy head and spokesman for the bureau, said on Wednesday.

A man surnamed Jiang, 26, had hidden the fact that he taught at an after-school training institution on Saturday during the epidemiological investigation. Five people, including Jiang himself, tested positive for the virus. That caused more than 400 people to be quarantined and around 6,700 residents in eight communities to be placed under controlled management.

Jiang has been "criminally detained", Pan said.

At present, four people were detained for crimes and 48 people are in administrative detention for allegedly breaking COVID-19 restrictions and laws during the outbreak, he said.

Chaoyang, which registered 80 cases by 3 pm on Wednesday, the most since the outbreak, started its second round of nucleic acid testing for people living or working in the district on Wednesday.

Around 1,530 testing spots were set up across the district to ensure all people can take the tests rapidly and efficiently, said Yang Beibei, the district's deputy head. By 3 pm on Wednesday, the district had taken more than 3 million samples, Yang said.

Fangshan, where 29 cases have been reported since Friday, asked its residents to delay wedding ceremonies and avoid holding elaborate funerals, in order to reduce infection risks.

Pang from the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control said that the confirmed cases in Fangshan were connected with a wedding feast on Tuesday.

As of Wednesday, Beijing had five high-risk areas for COVID-19 and 16 medium-risk areas.