LOCALLY-TRANSMITTED COVID CASES RATTLE BEIJING OFFICIALS

Beijing has tightened COVID-19 curbs over concerns that China's mass travel during the holiday period could cause cases to spike in the capital, as it reported five locally transmitted cases for a fourth straight day on Sunday, Stella Qiu and Ryan Woo reported for Reuters.

A meeting led by the capital's Communist party boss, Cai Qi, urged all districts in Beijing to enter an "emergency" mode, sealing off residential compounds and villages where infections are found.

China's southern technology hub of Shenzhen reported one asymptomatic case on Sunday, a patient who made two business trips to Beijing this month. These cases have shown that China has not beaten COVID-19 and proved that new cases were not caused by the virus hiding in imported foodstuff.

Shunyi district, where all Beijing's recent coronavirus cases have been reported, has declared a wartime mode and testing for all its 800,000 people. All the cases reported on Saturday were close contacts of previous cases. Two villages in Shunyi have been sealed off as a result.

In another report, the Associated Press (AP) said officials confirmed four locally-transmitted cases in the northeastern port city of Dalia, where over 4.75 million people were tested following more than 20 confirmed cases this month.

China reported 22 new cases in the last 24 hours, including 10 imported and 12 domestic. China has so far reported a total of 86,955 cases, with 4,634 deaths.

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