Photo: Li Hao/GT

 

Beijing has effectively cut the COVID-19 transmission chain as there have been no infections reported outside quarantine zones for five consecutive days, and no new high-risk areas have been found so far, said a Beijing government official at a media briefing on Wednesday.

Beijing municipal government spokesperson Xu Hejian said the city will accelerate production resumption in districts free from COVID-19 restrictions in an orderly manner. The city currently has no high-risk areas and only three medium-risk areas.

Beijing will lift restrictions in Fengtai District from Thursday, including ending the work-from-home policy and resuming public transportation, as well as reopening restaurants' dine-in services along with gyms and cinemas, with a 75 percent cap on visitor capacity. The district required people to work from home from May 31.

With the resumption of public transportation facilities across the whole city, Beijing will on Thursday launch a new ticket checking system for the subway networks and bus routes in six districts - Dongcheng, Xicheng, Chaoyang, Haidian, Fengtai and Shijingshan. The system can automatically check passengers' health code when they tap in.

According to Rong Jun, deputy director of the Beijing Transport Commission, the updated system has been tried out since May 17 in more than 386 subway stations and 536 bus lines and has been reliable. Passengers can skip the step of showing their health code to staffers and just conveniently tap in to take buses and subways.  

According to the Beijing health commission, the city has reported a total of 1,831 COVID-19 cases from April 22 to 3 pm on Wednesday.