Beijing's total tally of the infections surpasses 600

Beijing is still facing the complicated and severe epidemic situation as the total tally of the infections during the latest COVID-19 outbreak surpassed 600 on Friday, a senior official said.

Beijing reported 66 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases between 3 pm on Thursday and 3 pm on Friday, bringing the total number of infections to 610 since April 22, involving 15 districts, according to Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control, at a news conference on Friday afternoon.

Among the new infections, 64 were reported in controlled zones and two were found during community testing, said Pang.

Of the total 610 infections, Chaoyang district registered 251 cases, the most in the outbreak, followed by Fangshan, which has recorded 155 cases since April 22.

"The new cases reported on Friday mainly come from three infection clusters - two in Chaoyang and one in Fangshan," Pang said. "One cluster in Chaoyang involved a restaurant, which was caused by employees who live together, which led to eight new cases reported on Friday and 17 infections in total by 3pm on Friday."

The other cluster in Chaoyang involved a vegetable market, which reported 10 new cases on Friday and the total infections related to this market reached 21 by 3pm on Friday.

"All the new infections of the three clusters are from controlled zones," Pang said.

Due to the increasing number of COVID-19 cases, one residential community in Chaoyang was designated as high-risk areas starting Friday.

As of Friday afternoon, Beijing had 18 high-risk areas for COVID-19 and 30 medium-risk areas.