Beijing on alert after COVID-19 spike in neighboring Hebei province

Alert levels in Beijing have gone up as Hebei reported 14 new locally-transmitted cases and 16 asymptomatic ones on Friday, the provincial health commission said on Saturday.

By Friday, there were 137 locally-transmitted confirmed cases and two imported ones in hospitals in Hebei.

In total, the province has recorded 476 locally-transmitted confirmed cases and 36 imported cases.

Beijing is on high alert as it houses the country's top leaders, and is getting ready for the annual Parliament session from March 5 during which over 5,000 officials would converge.

Beijing is already dealing with a spurt in cases in some of the suburban communities and has announced a 21-day quarantine for people coming from abroad.

As of Friday, the total number of cases in China had gone up to 87,364. According to the NHC, around 4,634 people have died as a result of the virus.

In view of the rising numbers, Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan rushed to the province on an inspection tour on the instructions of President Xi Jinping.

Several local health officials have already been suspended.

Sun did the inspection tour from Wednesday to Friday, paying visits to a village in the province's capital city of Shijiazhuang, a quarantine site, a local community, an epidemic control center, and hospitals to learn about local conditions, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Shijiazhuang, meanwhile, has suspended all subway services to curb the spread of COVID-19.

To further contain the spread of COVID-19, the city requires all local residents to undertake seven-day home quarantine after citywide nucleic acid tests, official media reports said.

Meanwhile, China stepped up vaccination drive as cases increased in the country.

"Over nine million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in China," Zeng Yixin, Deputy Head of the NHC, said.

Those administered vaccines include workers in the cold-chain logistics sector, custom inspectors, health professionals, employees at government agencies and in public service sectors, community workers, as well as people who are to go abroad.

Further, China has granted conditional approval to the first homegrown vaccine developed by state-owned pharmaceutical firm Sinopharm.

Pang Xinghuo, Deputy Director of the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said that groups like pregnant women, lactating women, and patients with some diseases are not suitable for vaccines.

People between 18 and 59 years will be vaccinated, and those not in the age group should wait for further data of clinical trials to know whether they could be vaccinated, Pang added.