Beijing city enters ‘state of emergency’ as city reports 13 locally transmitted COVID cases

Chinese capital city Beijing has issued instructions to all districts, departments and companies to enter a state of emergency and adopt stringent measures to stop the spread of COVID19. The city reported a total of 13 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the recent wave, nine in Shunyi district, three in Chaoyang district and one in Xicheng.

With resurgence in cases, Beijing has started mass testing and is expected to see New Year holidays with scaled down public activities and reduced number of outbound travel. Shunyi district which has been in “wartime” mode since Friday, has raised the risk level of some areas to medium-risk as reported by state media. It is conducting COVID test on some 800,000 people. With sporadic cases related to Beijing’s Chaoyang district appearing as well, it has tested more than 234,000 people in many areas. Shenzhen reported one asymptomatic case on Sunday who had traveled to Beijing twice previously