Beijing will improve its epidemic prevention and control policies concerning people returning or going to the capital as the city's new local COVID-19 cases continued to increase, senior official said at a news conference on Sunday.

Xu Hejian, spokesman of the municipality, said unimpeded channels for medical treatment and for relief from difficulties will be guaranteed. He added that market supplies for citizens will be also ensured.

Beijing recorded 170 new local COVID-19 infections between midnight and 3 pm on Sunday, among whom 14 were detected at a community level, according to the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

Liu Xiaofeng, deputy director of the center, said at the conference, that new infections and COVID-hit places in the city have kept increasing with multiple sites affected by clustered infections including construction sites, schools, hotels and nursing homes.

"We should maintain scientifically and accurately do the work of epidemic prevention and control to curb further transmission," he said.