Beijing quickly moves to protect from possible COVID-19 spread

The latest COVID-19 epidemic cluster located in a college in Beijing on Tuesday has warned that the infection risk is increasing due to many students returning from summer vacation, a senior official said at a news conference on Tuesday morning.

Liu Xiaofeng, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control, said the city's epidemic control and prevention condition is severe at present.

Wang Feng, vice-principal of the Beijing University of Chemical Technology, said at the news conference that one confirmed COVID-19 case and five positive cases were identified by this morning.

"All the staff and students with risks have been sent to centralized quarantine," he said.

Li Yi, spokesman of the capital's education commission, said the city has strengthened multiple measures to avoid infection risks in colleges.

Early Tuesday morning, Beijing reported one new confirmed COVID-19 case between midnight and 7 am. The case is a college student who returned to the city from another province for the new semester, according to an announcement from Changping district epidemic control and prevention center on Tuesday morning.

The student, whose nucleic acid tests on Aug 29, 30, 31 and Sept 2 all showed negative, has been sent to the designated hospital for medical treatment.

The student took the train G572 on Aug 28 and arrived in Beijing at noon. After arriving on their campus in the afternoon on Aug 28, the student had not left the campus until they were transferred to hospital due to a fever on Monday.

The No 4 building of Beijing University of Chemical Technology's campus in Changping district, where the student lives, has been designated as a high-risk area.

Beijing also reported one locally transmitted COVID-19 case on Monday. The case, who lives in Fengtai district, was in quarantine for observation.