Beijing find 13 new COVID-19 cases on campus as universities deal with infection from returned students

Beijing has strengthened COVID-19 prevention measures on campus as cluster infections in multiple universities continue to increase. The capital city detected 14 new COVID-19 confirmed cases among quarantined individuals between 12 am and 3 pm on Sunday, 13 of whom are university students.

The recent clusters found in universities in Beijing originated with people returning to the capital from other provinces, Xu Hejian, spokesperson for the Beijing municipal government, said on Sunday at a press conference.

As students return to Beijing from all over the country for the new fall semester, the city has faced pressure to prevent imported infections from entering Beijing local schools amid the latest COVID-19 outbreak that has appeared in 29 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions since September 1.

Six new COVID-19 cases were confirmed at the Communication University of China (CUC) in Chaoyang district from 3 pm on Saturday to 3 pm on Sunday, bringing the total number to 13 since 12 am on Saturday.

Another 151 teachers and students of the university were transferred to a centralized isolation point on Sunday, said Li Zhong, deputy Party secretary of the CUC, at the press conference.

The CUC will beef up the supervision of student buildings floor by floor, to make sure the health conditions of each student are accurately known by the school. Movement across blocks, floors, and rooms is prohibited within the school, Li said.

The university entered closed-loop management on Friday, after one suspected case was found on campus, according to a statement the university issued on Saturday morning.

It is a critical period for schools to deal with the epidemic on campus, said Liu Xiaofeng, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

He urged schools to strengthen the management of epidemic prevention work, including vaccination for returned students, implementing the standardized management of health monitoring stations on campus and making sure that nucleic acid testing, cleaning and disinfection of public bathrooms, laundry rooms, stair handrails, door handles, elevator keys and public articles are conducted in a timely manner.

Another university, the Beijing University of Chemical Technology (BUCT) tested 16,736 people for COVID-19 at its Changping and Chaoyang campuses, which all returned negative results, said Wang Feng, vice president of the university, on Sunday.

Except for three buildings and some of the dormitories, all other areas in BUCT's Chaoyang campus have been adjusted from temporary control to regular epidemic prevention and control status, said Wang.