Authorities on Tuesday raised Beijing to a level two alert,the second-highest level in a four-tier COVID-19 emergency response level system. That reversed a one-step downgrade from level three 10 days earlier.
Some 27 neighbourhoods have been designated as medium-risk areas where people entering are subjected to temperature checks and registration. One neighbourhood,near the massive wholesale food market detected as the source of the latest outbreak,was marked high-risk.
The city's roads and highways were still open,companies and factories were not ordered to stop work,and there was no blanket curb on residential compounds.
But movement of people in and out of the city was strictly controlled and subject to COVID-19 tests,while residents in high-risk areas were both quarantined and required to undergo tests. Kindergartens,primary schools and high schools were shut.
Aviation data tracker Variflight showed that half the scheduled inbound flights and 40 per cent of outbound flights from Beijing Capital International Airport,one of the city's two major airports,have been or would likely be cancelled on Wednesday. The majority of the flights are domestic routes.