22 new virus cases confirmed in Beijing on Saturday

Beijing reported 22 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 over the course of Saturday, with the youngest patient aged 19 months and the oldest aged 86, Pang Xinghuo, deputy head of the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a news conference on Sunday.

The average age of the infected is 42, and 10 cases were detected in Fengtai district, where the Xinfadi agricultural wholesale market is located, Pang said.

Three of the confirmed cases on Saturday showed mild symptoms while 19 showed moderate symptoms, she added.

The Beijing branch of food corporation PepsiCo suspended operations after one employee was confirmed as a COVID-19 patient on June 15, according to Fan Zhimin, an official with the publicity department of PepsiCo Greater China Region.

The 480 employees were sent to concentrated quarantine and all tested negative for the virus, Fan said on Sunday, adding that the environment has been disinfected and sterilized twice in the past week.

The Xinjiekou community in Xicheng district has chosen a soccer court as the sampling site for nucleic acid tests, community official Guo Hailong said on Sunday.

Since Thursday at eight sampling points where workers can conduct 800 tests an hour, tests on 12,000 residents have been completed, Guo said.

Beijing saw its daily maximum testing capacity increase to 230,000 through Saturday, Gao Xiaojun, spokesman of the Beijing Municipal Health Commission, said at the news conference, adding that more support will come to further increase testing capacity.

The National Health Commission has organized 10 testing teams with 212 members from Central China's Hubei and Northeast China's Liaoning provinces to support the work in Beijing, Gao said.

The support team will arrive soon and help the capital increase its daily capacity by 30,000 tests, Gao said.