Two of the recent COVID-19 patients found in Beijing's Daxing district were carrying the highly transmissible variant of the novel coronavirus first detected in the United Kingdom, Pang Xinghuo, deputy head of the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Wednesday.
Also, the residential community where cluster infections were reported was designated a high-risk area, Pang said at a news conference.
The finding on the two cases has been confirmed by the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Pang said, adding that the source of the two infections was suspected of having been imported.
Variants detected in the UK and South Africa, which epidemiologists have found to be more transmissible than previous versions, have become the predominant strains in some regions. That means prevention and control of such strains is more difficult, Feng Zijian, deputy director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a news conference on Wednesday afternoon.
Beijing reported seven new local COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, and six of the patients live in the Ronghui community in Daxing district. Of the 11 new confirmed cases reported in Beijing in the past three days, 10 were from the Ronghui community-now the capital's only high-risk area-and one was from Shunyi district. The Shunyi patient was a close contact of a confirmed patient in Daxing.
As of Wednesday, there were six high-risk areas around China.
The Daxing government started mass nucleic acid testing for all its residents on Wednesday.
Residents are required to stay in Beijing unless it is necessary to leave. All educational institutions are closed and students must stay at home.