The Universal Beijing Resort on October 26 Photo: Liu Yang/GT

The Beijing government on Friday urged the newly opened Universal Studios theme park to implement COVID-19 emergency management protocols, after the Chinese capital reported nearly 30 confirmed COVID-19 cases in less than two weeks. More than 300 confirmed local cases have been reported in more than 10 provincial regions around China in the latest flare-up. 

Xu Hejian, spokesperson of the Beijing municipal government, said at Friday's press conference that Beijing has to reduce gatherings such as wedding ceremonies, exhibitions, forums and performances, and the core areas must apply stricter measures to prevent the risk of cluster infections. The Universal Studios theme park must enter into a COVID-19 emergency state, and epidemic prevention and control has to be tightened for hotels, he said.

Beijing reported two newly confirmed, locally transmitted cases on Friday, raising the number of locally transmitted cases to 29 in less than two weeks, the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday. 

The center said the epidemic situation in Beijing is extremely severe which requires high vigilance and strict measures, and in-door venues such as chess rooms have to suspend services. 

The number of visits to the Universal Studios park has declined by about 20 percent due to the recent COVID-19 flare-up in Beijing and other cities, an employee at the theme park told the Global Times this week, and the theme park has strengthened virus prevention and control measures as cleaners, security guards and cinema workers have to take nucleic acid tests each week, employees of the park said.

The Beijing government announced the suspension of cross-provincial tours, and those tours that have not started must be canceled or alter their itinerary. 

Hotels in Beijing's core areas have been ordered to stop holding wedding banquets, after one of two newly reported cases was found to be a wedding photographer who went to the Beijing Hotel on October 23 and 24 for wedding shoots. 

Parks, scenic spots, libraries, and entertainment venues can open at maximum 75 percent capacity, the government said. 

Beijing's latest COVID-19 flare-ups are Delta variant-related, and the virus strain is similar to the recent coronavirus cases reported in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Northwest China's Gansu Province, the Beijing government said. 

Two high-speed trains bound for Beijing were stopped and put under quarantine on Thursday after it was determined that close contacts of a positive COVID-19 case were onboard, and all personnel on the train were tested negative on Friday. 

Beijing on Thursday vowed to promote booster shots of COVID-19 vaccines among construction workers and people in the services sector, such as chefs, purchasers, attendants, cleaners and security guards, and booster shots will be made mandatory for people in key high-risk positions. 

Beijing also launched the inoculation of COVID-19 vaccines among children aged between 3 and 11 on Thursday. 

Global Times