Beijing Bar Cluster Tracked 115 COVID-19 Positive And 6,158 People Quarantined

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JAKARTA - The new cluster of COVID-19 variant Omicron found in a bar in the international area of Sanlitun, Beijing, China, as of Saturday afternoon, it was tracked that 115 people had tested positive for infection and 6,158 people were quarantined.

All were found among bar patrons and some of their close contacts, said Liu Xiaofeng, deputy director of the Beijing City Center for Infectious Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

One case was found in a visitor to Heaven Supermarket bar near Workers Stadium, Sanlitun, Chaoyang District, who did not show a negative test result in the past 14 days on the first day of recovery in Beijing City, Monday (6/6).

Even though the lockdown status was lifted five days ago, Beijing authorities still require a negative PCR test result valid within the last 72 hours.

One such case had the flu on Wednesday (8/6) night. Even so, he still visited the bar again on Thursday (9/6), then the PCR test came back positive.

Almost all of the bar's patrons were tracked by the health code system (jiankangbao), which must be scanned via cell phones.

All businesses, including restaurants and entertainment venues, must be accountable to their visitors and employees, the CDC says.

Beijing authorities banned cafes and restaurants from receiving visitors on May 1. The ban was lifted on June 6. However, after three days of normal activity, another new cluster was found in the bar next to the Workers Stadium.

Finally, several bars and restaurants in the Chaoyang District were closed for 10 days, starting from Saturday.

Despite this, authorities in Beijing and Shanghai (which had been lifted from the lockdown) continued to carry out their recovery cautiously.