A staff member disinfects parcels to be delivered to residents at a residential area in Haidian District of Beijing, capital of China, Jan. 16, 2022.Photo:Xinhua

Beijing now requires workers in the imported cold chain food industry to hold COVID-19 nucleic acid negative test certificates within three days, instead of the previous seven days, as the capital city strengthens epidemic prevention measures amid the recent flare-up. 

Beijing reported five new locally confirmed COVID-19 cases from 12 am to 4 pm on Thursday, including three that tested positive on Wednesday. 

Among all 11 cases in Beijing's latest outbreak, four are related to cold chain logistics, and three live in the same building in Fangshan district. 

At a press conference on Thursday, Lang Zhiqiang, an official with the Beijing Administration for Market Supervision, said that people who live with imported cold chain logistics workers need to take nucleic acid tests once every 15 days, instead of the previous 30 days. 

There are about 33,700 imported cold-chain food workers in Beijing, said Lang. 

COVID-19 infections have been detected in four districts in Beijing, with Fangshan district and Fengtai district being lifted to COVID-19 medium-risk areas on Thursday. 

Fangshan has conducted nucleic acid tests on 2,159 cold chain logistics workers. So far, 2,107 of them have tested negative, and results for 52 of them have yet to be reported.