Beijing raised a residential community in Changping district to medium-risk level of COVID-19 control and prevention as four locally transmitted cases were reported from the area by 11 am on Friday, said the municipal government official at a news conference on Friday.

Currently, the capital has only this one medium-risk area and the rest are all low-risk areas.

The four confirmed cases, including a couple, traveled to Inner Mongolia, Ningxia Hui autonomous regions and Shanxi together from Oct 12 to 15 by car. They reported to local community after learning about the recent COIVD-19 outbreak in related regions and provinces and were confirmed on Friday, according to Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The local authority has found 194 close contacts who are being transferred to designated locations for centralized quarantine.

To control and cut transmission, the local authority swiftly tested 16,000 residents in the area by 10 am.

Beijing reported six cases related to this round of the cluster in other provinces this week by 11 am Friday.