A top official from Shunyi district yesterday urged residents to avoid all unnecessary travel outside the home and to plan on spending the Spring Festival within the district.
While outlining a series of measures to get the latest outbreak under control, Shunyi District Committee Standing Committee Deputy Chief Zhi Xianwei urged people to cancel or postpone all non-essential trips outside the district.
Zhi also said all 51 of the district’s after-school training centers have been ordered closed, as well as movie theaters, swimming pools, and other recreational facilities that normally draw crowds.
Meanwhile, two sources with children in local public schools in the district report that they have been informed by their school that classes will move to on-line only, effective immediately. However, an official media announcement regarding this could not be found at press time.
Sources working in the administration of international schools in Shunyi indicate that they are also being advised to prepare for the potential of reverting to an on-line only model.
However, at present after-school training centers are the only educational institutions that were cited in the city’s official channels to have been explicitly told to suspend in-person classes.
Both local and international schools are currently on holiday and are due to be back in session this week. While no word on the specific plans for the schools was stated yesterday, there was a reference to “scientifically adjust[ing] the use of online and offline teaching methods,” which hints that schools in the district may be requested to move to an online-only model for the weeks left before the Spring Festival holiday in early February.
Citywide, public schools’ Spring Festival break has already been moved up, with lower grades ending classes two weeks early, on Jan 16, and middle grades ending a week early on Jan 23.
Shunyi has become the center of concern in Beijing over the last two weeks; of the 24 local virus transmissions found in Beijing’s latest outbreak, 20 of them were amongst residents of Shunyi, while another was Huairou resident who worked in Shunyi. Out of six areas in Beijing now classified as medium risk, five are in Shunyi.
The five are:
- Nancai Village, Nancai Township, Shunyi
- Zhangxizhuang Village, Gaoliying Township, Shunyi
- Xidulan Village, Nanfaxin Township, Shunyi
- Donghaihong Village, Nanfaxin Township, Shunyi
- Dongmagezhuang Village, Gaoliying Township, Shunyi
(The sixth area in Beijing is the Hanting Hotel and immediate surrounding area in Dashanzi, Chaoyang, not too far from the 798 Art District).
The five areas are relatively small local villages clustered to the north and northeast of the Capital International Airport. Most expat residents of Shunyi live in housing estates west or southwest of the airport.
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Photos: Google maps
