Two of Beijing’s central city districts – Xicheng and Dongcheng – conducted universal nucleic acid testing for all residents, nearly 2 million people. Beijing has recorded more than a dozen cases since the first in the current outbreak emerged in suburban Daxing district on January 17. The 1.6 million residents of Daxing district were prohibited from leaving Beijing, as two Covid-19 cases linked to a new virus variant first found in Britain were identified. The Ronghui residential compound in Daxing’s Tiangongyuan subdistrict was declared a coronavirus hotspot. Over 24,000 residents of the compounds are required to quarantine in their homes. Meetings of 50 or more people in the district have been banned, while “weddings should be postponed and funerals simplified,” the Daxing government said. Beijing’s subway operator shut down the Tiangongyuan station located nearby the compound where the Daxing patients live.

Beijing is conducting nucleic acid testing among employees in key and “high-risk” industries, including cold chain, farm markets, restaurants, food delivery, public transport and daily life services, as part of ramped up efforts to find asymptomatic and imported cases. As of January 24, the city had conducted 17.46 million tests on its population with an average daily testing size of 415,680. Maximum daily testing capacity has reached 1.43 million. Beijing has a permanent resident population of 21 million.

People in Beijing’s rural areas have already been tested, covering 1.92 million residents in 396 villages. All results have come back negative. To better understand the outbreak’s source, the city has started human serum testing for all travelers who have arrived in Beijing from overseas since December 10. Shanghai designated the Salvo hotel in downtown Huangpu district as a medium-risk area for the virus’ spread – the second in the city – after six locally transmitted, confirmed cases were reported on January 21. Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei province, detected 30 positive results for coronavirus from its third round of nucleic acid testing of its over 10.25 million residents, 25 of whom were already in centralized quarantine centers before testing positive.

As the number of Covid-19 cases is rising in rural areas, the National Health Commission (NHC) announced that  people intending to travel home to rural areas during the upcoming Spring Festival holiday must provide a negative  coronavirus test taken within seven days of starting their trip. People returning to the countryside should also isolate themselves at home for 14 days and take nucleic acid tests every seven days. About 1.7 billion passengers trips are expected during this year’s 40-day travel period around Spring Festival, which falls on February 12. That is down by 40% compared to 2019, before the outbreak of the virus, but a 10% increase on last year, according to the Ministry of Transport. The projected daily number of passenger trips – about 40 million a day – are double the current volume, putting the country’s disease control work to the test. Feng Zijian, Deputy Director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, suggested the public avoid crowded places or dining in public spaces during the holiday. “The length of time spent on shopping at supermarkets or eating at restaurants is suggested to be capped at under two hours,” he added. 

A WeChat-based mini-program for checking health codes in Beijing has started to show users’ Covid-19 vaccination status in preparation for a de facto immunity passport, though many uncertainties remain about its implementation, according to the China Daily. Those who have received the first dose of the vaccine have found that their app has added a line u