Young people account for majority in latest outbreak

Up to 97.1 percent of the infected people during Beijing's latest COVID-19 outbreak linked to a bar in Sanlitun area are asymptomatic carriers or had only mild symptoms, and 29 patients have been discharged from hospital so far, a senior official said on Monday.

Beijing's two designated hospitals have admitted 377 COVID-19 infected people as of 3 pm Monday since the latest outbreak began on June 9, and most cases are aged between 17 and 28, said Wang Xiao'e, an official with the Beijing Health Commission at a news conference on Monday.

She said young infected people aged between 17 and 28 account for 73.9 percent of the total infections. No critical or severe cases have been reported during this outbreak.

All of the 377 infected people were treated at Beijing Ditan Hospital and Xiaotangshan Hospital.

Beijing reported five new infections on Sunday and three new infections as of 3 pm on Monday, according to Liu Xiaofeng, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

One of those cases was from mass nucleic acid testing in communities and the rest were all reported from quarantine locations, he said.

"The local case did not report their health condition to their residential community or workplace after they got symptoms on June 14, which has caused virus transmission to at least five people so far," Liu said.

Meanwhile, Shenzhen in Guangdong province suspended two passenger ferry routes after the discovery of two locally transmitted asymptomatic carriers of COVID-19 on Saturday.

According to a notice released by the Shenzhen transportation bureau on Sunday, the city suspended its passenger ferry services from Shekou Port to Macao on Sunday. Ferry services to the outlying islands of Lingdingyang in the estuary of the Pearl River were also suspended on Monday.

The moves aim to prevent and control the spread of the coronavirus outside the city, the notice said.

Guangdong reported no new local COVID-19 infections on Sunday, said the provincial health commission on Monday.

The city of Jilin in Northeast China's Jilin province, reported one asymptomatic carrier on Sunday, according to the local health commission. As a result, all schools have suspended on-campus classes in the city. Passenger vehicles have been asked to not take to the roads for three days.