Beijing reports more cases in local outbreak

Beijing reported 49 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases in the 24 hours ending at 3 pm Wednesday, bringing the total number of infections since April 22 to 1,218. Fifteen districts are involved, according to Liu Xiaofeng, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control, at a news conference on Wednesday.

"Of the new infections, 45 were reported in controlled zones and four were found from mass nucleic acid tests at community level," he said. "Thirty-five new infections among the 49 cases were related to recent clusters."

Beijing has reported several clusters involving a market, a subway renovation project, a bus station and a branch of a logistics company.

The major cluster of the Yuegezhuang wholesale market has resulted in 78 cases and the cluster of the logistic company has led 50 people infected as of Wednesday afternoon, Liu said.

Of all 1,218 cases, Chaoyang district registered 396 cases, the most in the outbreak, followed by Fangshan, which reported 337. Fengtai reported 150 and Haidian reported 132 during the same period.

As of Wednesday, Beijing had 15 high-risk areas for COVID-19 and 32 medium-risk areas.