Beijing reports more cases in ongoing outbreak

Beijing has changed the designation of four communities in Beijing's Chaoyang district from lockdown zones to controlled zones starting Tuesday, said Xu Hejian, spokesman for the city government at a news conference on Tuesday afternoon.

Dozens of controlled zones in Chaoyang were lifted out of control measures on Tuesday and residents will follow the same regulations as others in the district including taking nucleic acid tests, working from home and health monitoring, he said.

Beijing reported 56 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases between 3pm Monday and 3pm on Tuesday, bringing the total number of infections to 1,169 since April 22. Fifteen districts are involved, according to Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

"Of the new infections, 47 were reported in controlled zones, and nine were found from mass nucleic acid tests at community level," she said. "Forty-four new infections among the 56 cases were related to recent clusters."

Beijing reported four recent clusters involving a market, a subway renovation project, a bus station and a branch of a logistics company, which has resulted in more than 100 infections.

Of all 1,169 cases, Chaoyang district registered 392 cases, the most in the outbreak, followed by Fangshan, which reported 327. Haidian reported 125 and Fengtai reported 123 during the same period.

As of Tuesday, Beijing had 17 high-risk areas for COVID-19 and 29 medium-risk areas.