Beijing government refutes lockdown rumors

The Beijing government is encouraging all residents to work from home on Friday and stay home during the coming weekend in order to reduce the risk of infection. The city will also conduct another three successive rounds of mass nucleic acid tests in most districts, a senior official said on Thursday afternoon.

"However, there is no need to store food or panic-buy and the city will function as normal," Xu Hejian, spokesman for the Beijing municipal government, said at a news conference. "It's only a rumor that Beijing will be locked down. Daily supplies will not be affected."

He said the city's epidemic situation is still intense and a hidden transmission chain still exists at the community level.

In order to discover the potential risks and swiftly curb the virus' spread, the government asked all residents in 12 districts including Xicheng, Dongcheng, Chaoyang, Haidian and Fengtai to take three rounds of tests starting Friday.