A staff member disinfects the waiting room every 4 hours at Beijing Railway Station in Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 12, 2021. Measures of COVID-19 prevention and control have been strengthened at the Beijing Railway Station. Photo:Xinhua

After Beijing's southern district Daxing reported one confirmed COVID-19 case and one asymptomatic patient on Monday, local authorities have put a total of 1,081 faculty members and students from a school where the confirmed patient studies under collective quarantine in 17 hotels for further health status monitoring, local officials said on Tuesday. 

The capital city still faced a severe epidemic prevention and control situation in fending off the risks brought by imported cases and the resurgence of domestically transmitted ones, Xu Hejian, spokesperson of the Beijing municipal government, told a press conference on Tuesday. 

"The confirmed case in Daxing belongs to a family cluster infection, sounding the alarm on the severe situation of the epidemic," Xu said. 

The school where the confirmed case in Daxing studies has ramped up epidemic prevention measures, putting a total of 1,081 faculty members and students under collective quarantine, Han Xinxing, deputy head of Daxing district, said during the press conference. They have been quarantined in 17 hotels and their health status will be closely monitored, the official said. 

Daxing district has also conducted sweeping nucleic acid tests in some key areas and completed tests on about 600,000 people from Monday to 4pm Tuesday. 

To curb imported infections, Beijing continued to ramp up prevention measures by conducting a 14+7+7 health management policy for overseas arrivals at customs entry. The policy refers to 14-day collective quarantine, seven-day home quarantine or collective quarantine and seven-day health monitoring. 

Also, people from medium and high-risk areas who need to come to Beijing for business or personal emergencies must get approval from provincial-level prevention and control authorities and report to the communities and companies in Beijing they will visit or stay. After being approved, they need to provide a 72-hour valid nucleic acid test results before getting on trains, buses or airplanes to Beijing, Xu said.