Beijing fines businesses for epidemic non-compliance

Beijing's market regulation authority has levied over 2.8 million yuan ($420,000) in fines against business entities which have failed to follow epidemic control and prevention procedures such as temperature and nucleic acid test checks, a senior official said at a news conference on Wednesday.

The cultural authority has checked all entertainment venues including karaoke rooms, internet cafes, cinemas and bars in the city and discovered 89 hidden risks of epidemic control and prevention.

Three internet cafes and one entertainment venue had their business licenses revoked.

Beijing's newly reported COVID-19 cluster involving the Heaven Supermarket bar in the Sanlitun area has led to 327 infections between midnight Thursday and 3pm Wednesday, Liu Xiaofeng, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control, said at a news conference on Wednesday.

The city reported 25 new locally transmitted cases and 38 asymptomatic carriers for Tuesday and seven new infections as of 3 pm Wednesday.

One of those infections was found from mass nucleic acid testing at communities and is an employee of a restaurant in Chaoyang district. The remaining infections were reported from quarantine locations.

Of the 327 cases, 226 had visited the bar. Seven are employees of the bar and the remaining 94 are related to confirmed cases. As of Wednesday afternoon, Beijing had four medium-risk areas for COVID-19.