Beijing city reports 39 new local COVID infections over past 24 hours

Beijing reported 39 new domestically transmitted COVID-19 infections during the 24 hours ending at 3 p.m. (0700 GMT) on Sunday, a disease control official at the Chinese capital said.

The city has had a total of 727 COVID infections since April 22, Pang Xinghuo, deputy director at Beijing Municipal Health Commission, told a news briefing.

Shanghai is tightening its already strict COVID-19 lockdown in a fresh push to eliminate infections outside quarantined areas of China's biggest city by late this month, people familiar with the matter said.

Curbs will likely vary across the city's 16 districts as some have already hit the target, but the people said movement curbs will generally remain until the end of May due to fears of a rebound, despite recently falling case numbers in the country's worst coronavirus outbreak.

Accounts from residents in several districts as well as social media posts showed the government of the city of 25 million accelerating and expanding an effort to transfer the close contacts of positive cases to central quarantines centres.

Multiple residents said they were being required to move to such facilities, despite testing negative, after cases were found in their buildings, stoking frustrations.