Capital to boost provision of makeshift hospitals, services to curb latest spread

Beijing will accelerate the construction and reservation of quarantine areas and makeshift hospitals, amid an increasing number of COVID-19 infections in recent days, a senior official said on Friday.

"The epidemic has been on the rise, with growing cases from communities, demonstrating an even more complicated and severe situation," Xu Hejian, spokesman for the municipal government, said at a briefing.

On Thursday, the city reported 424 locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases and 1,436 asymptomatic carriers.

Between midnight and 3 pm on Friday, Beijing reported 1,119 locally transmitted COVID-19 infections, including 866 asymptomatic carriers, and among those, 207 were detected at the community level, said Liu Xiaofeng, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

To curb the spread, Beijing will accelerate construction and strengthen management of quarantine facilities and makeshift hospitals, and improve services, he said.

"We will also allocate resources including space, facilities, daily supplies and staff to them," he said. To that effect, a makeshift hospital in the New China International Exhibition Center has been put into use.

By April, Beijing had completed the construction of makeshift hospitals, which can provide 4,000 beds for patients, with another 10,000 beds planned, according to a government briefing on April 30.

The capital will further accelerate identifying positive cases, Xu said. The transfer of positive cases should also be sped up to lower the epidemic risk.

Chaoyang, the hardest-hit district, reported 404 infections, including 89 at the community level. Social activities have been further reduced and the percentage of staff going to workplaces lowered.

The Chinese mainland on Thursday reported 3,041 locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases and 29,654 local asymptomatic carriers, the National Health Commission said on Friday.

Hit-hard cities like Chongqing and Guangzhou have shown a downward trend in cases.

Chongqing reported 258 new confirmed local cases and 6,242 asymptomatic ones, a decrease in daily case load since Wednesday, according to an official tally.

New infections have peaked in recent days and the momentum of the virus spread has been curbed, said local medical expert Qiu Jingfu.

Urban districts of Chongqing have also seen the proportion of new cases via community transmission in the city's total cases decreasing from 62.65 percent on Nov 12 to 7.2 percent on Wednesday.

During an inspection, Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan said prevention and control needs to be precisely and efficiently implemented in Chongqing.

It is necessary to provide medical and humane care by improving nucleic acid testing, boosting transfer procedures, avoiding unnecessary processes and scientifically classifying and hospitalizing patients, she said.

In Guangzhou, Zhang Yi, deputy director and spokeswoman for the city's health commission, said the rapid upward trend of the COVID-19 pandemic situation has been stemmed, with new daily infections declining slowly.

Guangzhou reported 7,524 new infections on Thursday, without infections in severe and critical conditions.

In the latest COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, the city reported its highest level of new infections in a single day on Nov 17, with 255 locally transmitted confirmed cases and 8,989 asymptomatic carriers, data from the commission showed.