New COVID cases in Beijing linked to bar

Beijing reported five new COVID-19 infections as of 3 pm on Tuesday, two of them discovered in mass testing in communities, according to Liu Xiaofeng, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control, at an afternoon news conference.

"The two cases from the community level show that Beijing's COVID-19 epidemic control and prevention situation is still complicated and that a risk of infection still exists in some areas," he said.

After gene sequencing analysis, the center confirmed that the four cases reported on Sunday and Monday are all from the transmission chains of a previous cluster linked to the Heaven Supermarket bar in the Sanlitun area of Beijing, which was first reported on June 9.

Since then, Beijing has reported 384 infections, as of 3 pm on Tuesday, Liu said. As of Tuesday, Beijing had one high-risk area for COVID-19 and three medium-risk areas.