Residents in Haidian district, Beijing line up for vaccination on March 27, 2021. Photo: VCG

Beijing reported four new positive COVID-19 cases on Tuesday who are from the same family living in Tiantongyuan, an enormous neighborhood in Beijing's Changping district reputed to be the largest residential area in Asia.

Their confirmation led the community where they live to be labeled as medium-risk region for the epidemic. Some 142,700 residents living in the community and neighboring streets were given nucleic acid tests starting on Tuesday morning. The mass test is likely to be completed on the same day.

Businesses near the community were required to suspend operations. Cinemas and amusement parks in the district were also closed. 

As of press time, Changping has reported 28 confirmed cases and two asymptomatic cases. Yang Renquan, the deputy head of Changping district, said the district has quarantined 3,517 close contacts and 991 secondary close contacts.  

The confirmation of the four family members led to the closure of two schools in Chaoyang district on Monday night. Students at the two schools were given nucleic acid tests and quarantined on Monday night. 

The mother of the family that had a positive case worked at the Huajiadi primary school in the district and used to visit Chenjinglun Middle School to pick her boy from school every day.  

Huajiadi primary school has 1,370 students and teachers but classes were off when the emergency test was rolled. Tests on 596 people who were at school on Monday came back negative and the results on 2,814 people will be released later. Results on 1,329 students and teachers at Chenjinglun Middle School also came back negative. 

Another 16 schools in Chaoyang district also suspended classes in the wake of the outbreak. 

Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of Beijing's center for disease control and prevention, said, as of press time, the capital has reported 35 positive cases, 33 of whom were confirmed and the other two were asymptomatic cases. 

Wang Guangfa, a respiratory disease expert at Peking University First Hospital, told the Global Times on Tuesday that the latest COVID-19 flare-up has affected at least 16 provincial-level regions in Chinese mainland so far which makes the epidemic in the capital part of it. Beijing has been acting fast in its handling of outbreaks, a bigger outbreak is unlikely to occur. 

But due to the duplex factor brought by Delta strain and cold weather, the public should travel less within the capital, Wang said. 

Leading a video meeting on Monday night, Cai Qi, Beijing Municipal Party Chief, said Beijing reported a new family clustered outbreak and urged officials to immediately take actions to cut off the viral transmission chain.