BEIJING lifted some of the COVID-19 control measures starting yesterday as new cases continue their downward trend.

Officials said Saturday that the recent outbreak has been brought under control with the number of new cases falling for six days. Eight of the city’s 16 districts have reported zero new cases for three consecutive days, while sporadic cases in a few localities remain controllable.

“The epidemic prevention and control in Beijing are at a critical stage of transforming from emergency response to regular prevention and control,” said Xu Hejian, deputy director of the Publicity Department of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, at a daily press conference. “But the risk of rebound still exists, and it shouldn’t be taken lightly.”

Beijing will implement dynamic prevention and control measures with different districts carrying out different measures according to their conditions. In the districts of Fangshan and Shunyi, residents can go back to working in their offices, while for the districts of Chaoyang District and Tongzhou, the number of people working in the office can be increased as required.

Buses, taxis and subway lines will resume operations in the districts of Chaoyang, Shunyi and Fangshan, except for localities under quarantine.

The temporary suspension of restaurant dining-in remains in place, and the resumption of classes in primary and secondary schools and kindergartens has also been postponed.

College students will be organized to return home but are required to make the route as simple as possible.

Offline training institutions, internet cafes, KTV venues and underground businesses in confined spaces will have to resume business at a later time, while home decoration services in residential districts remain suspended.

“We must implement epidemic prevention measures to make COVID under control with zero cases,” Xu said. “We will unswervingly and continuously press ahead with ‘dynamic-zero’ across the board to consolidate the positive momentum.”

The Chinese mainland reported Saturday 54 locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases, of which 29 were in Shanghai and 14 in Beijing, the National Health Commission said yesterday.(CGTN)