Chaoyang district in Beijing orders all entertainment venues and fitness venues and training institutions in basements to suspend operations from June 9 afternoon, after nucleic acid samples in Changping and Chaoyang districts tested positive. Photo: VCG

Chaoyang district in Beijing, originally the epicenter of the latest flare-up of Omicron in the capital city, ordered all entertainment venues and fitness venues and training institutions in basements to suspend operations from Thursday afternoon, after nucleic acid samples in Changping and Chaoyang districts tested positive on Thursday, with cases involving cluster infections at bars.

Entertainment venues including KTV and internet cafes in Chaoyang district were required to be temporarily closed from 2 pm, the Chaoyang Culture and Tourism Bureau announced on Thursday.  

All training institutions located in basements or poorly ventilated spaces in Chaoyang district were also requested to be shut down. 

Party chief of Beijing Cai Qi, who led the city's anti-epidemic group, said the city detected cluster infections involving bars. 

Cai stressed that the city will carry out epidemic prevention inspections in bars, KTV sites, internet cafes and other places, and suspend the operation of places where prevention and control measures are not fully implemented and airtight ventilation is not good.

The bars involved in the outbreak include the Paradise Supermarket bar, One Third club, Fresh Club and PH club, which are all concentrated in the hustling and bustling Workers Stadium area, according to the center for disease control and prevention of Chaoyang district on Thursday.

A Global Times reporter visited the Sanlitun shopping center and found that bars and entertainment venues and the involved Paradise Supermarket bar were shutdown. 

Addressing some netizens' concern as to whether this was a sign of a recurring outbreak in Beijing, Wang Guangfa, a Beijing-based respiratory expert, told the Global Times that citizens should be prepared for the possibility that sporadic outbreaks will become a regular occurrence. 

"What we should insist on is reducing control areas without reducing prevention measures, rapidly screening in the affected areas and quickly returning to normal life," Wang noted.

During the press conference on COVID-19 prevention and control in Beijing on Thursday, Yang Beibei, an official from the Chaoyang district government, declared that the district will carry out regional nucleic acid testing in Sanlitun, downtown Beijing, and its surrounding areas including Chaowai, Zuojiazhuang, Hujialou, Tuanjiehu, Maizidian and other key areas.

A resident in Chaoyang district told the Global Times that the sports center in her community has already been closed and reserved sports activity has been cancelled by the center.

As Beijing is carrying out the national college entrance examinations or gaokao on Wednesday, Cai said that examinees from the districts involved will be provided with services to ensure their safe and smooth participation.

Whether these new positive cases will turn into a new wave depends largely on the source of the outbreak, Wang stressed.