A medical worker collects a swab sample at a nucleic acid testing site in Ejina Banner of Alxa League, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Oct 22, 2021.Photo:Xinhua

Beijing requires residents who had traveled to Alashan, North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, since September 23 to report their travel history to relevant authorities after the capital reported a total of seven local COVID-19 cases as of Saturday related to the current outbreak in Alashan.

A community in the Changping district in Beijing has been lifted to high-risk area, making it one of the only two high-risk areas in China for now with the other in Alashan.  

In total, 38 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases were reported across China with 17 from Northwest China's Gansu Province and 11 from Inner Mongolia, according to the National Health Commission on Saturday.     

This round of epidemic outbreak  in Beijing concerns a self-driving tour group, of which all the five members have been confirmed infection, Beijing health official Pang Xinghuo said at a press conference on Saturday.  

According to Pang, one of the tour group members has had fever since October 15 and his wife has had fever since October 19 but neither of them went to the hospital. Instead, they invited friends to home to play cards after having fever symptoms. Two of their friends had been confirmed infection.  

A medical worker asks a man about his physical condition at a vaccination site in Xicheng District of Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 17, 2021. Beijing has begun to offer a third COVID-19 booster vaccine to people of higher risks in some neighborhoods.Photo: Xinhua

 
The five people made a tour to Inner Mongolia, Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and North China's Shanxi Province from October 12 to 16, according to Beijing authority. 

They visited the Xuankong temple in the Hunyuan county in Shanxi Province. The 

Hunyuan authority has shut down the temple and launched epidemiological investigation into where the Beijng cases had visited. The county had collected 3,300 samples for nucleic acid testing as of 8 am Saturday and all turned out to be negative.     

Three other tourism sites in the Hunyuan county are also suspended in consideration of epidemic prevention and control.

Global Times