Beijing tracks down infections in COVID cluster

Beijing's newly reported COVID-19 cluster involving a bar has led to 228 infections identified between midnight Thursday and 3 pm Monday. It involves most districts in the city, a senior official said on Monday.

Beijing reported 50 new locally transmitted cases on Sunday and 45 new cases as of 3 pm on Monday — two at the community level and the others from quarantine locations, said Liu Xiaofeng, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control, at a news conference.

He said the outbreak is still developing and that risks of infection and further virus spread still exist.

The new locally transmitted cases all relate to a bar in Sanlitun, Chaoyang district, Liu said.

Of the 228 people, 180 had been to the Heaven Supermarket bar in Sanlitun. Four are employees of the bar and the remaining 44 were related to confirmed cases.

Before the infection cluster became apparent on Thursday, Beijing had five straight days of zero new cases. The new infections have brought the total number of infections in the latest outbreak to 2,059 since April 22.

Many districts, including Chaoyang, Haidian and Dongcheng, created dozens of new lockdown zones to cut virus transmission.