Beijing's Fengtai District reported a COVID-19 infection coming from Northwest China's Gansu Province on Tuesday and has requested local residents not to leave if unnecessary. The newly confirmed case broke Beijing's record of no new local cases for over 70 days.
The patient took the same train with a previously confirmed patient surnamed Ai in Northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. Ai was the close contact of an elderly couple who traveled from Shanghai to Northwest China's Gansu Province and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and tested positive for COVID-19 in Shaanxi Province. Another two elderly couples and a man in his 60s in the same tour were also tested positive for coronavirus.
The latest COVID-19 flare-up has expanded to seven provinces, regions and cities.
Virus that has triggered new outbreaks of COVID-19 linked to a tour group of seniors from Shanghai that have affected several regions of China likely stemmed from overseas, Chinese health experts said, as more than 20 positive cases linked to contacts of the group have been reported so far.
The group, which crisscrossed provincial regions in China's north and northwest, likely came into contact with the virus which may have arrived through port cities in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, although where exactly it came from and how it came into China is unknown, health experts said, noting the prevalent COVID-19 variants such as Delta now circulating globally could survive longer on products in cold weather, which may have triggered community transmission.