Beijing's COVID cases pass 1,000 for the first time since 2020

Beijing recorded 274 local confirmed COVID-19 cases and 1,164 asymptomatic carriers on Monday in total, according to the city's health commission on Tuesday morning. It was the first time since the start of the pandemic that the number of infections for a single day in the capital surpassed one thousand.

Among those cases, 207 were detected from the community level.

On Tuesday early morning, a big number of parks and museums in the capital, including the Beijing Olympic Park, Beijing Happy Valley, the China National Botanical Garden, the Beijing Wildlife Park and the Summer Palace, have announced that they will close either in their entirety or indoor areas only on a temporary basis starting on Tuesday.

On Monday, Liu Xiaofeng, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control, said Beijing is facing the most complicated and severe epidemic control and prevention situation since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, at a news conference.

The number of infections in the city has continued to rise at a high level, he said.

The city government will hold a news conference on COVID-19 control and prevention work at 5 pm on Tuesday.