SHANGHAI: A disease control official in Beijing said 39 new domestically transmitted COVID-19 illnesses were detected in the 24 hours ending at 3 p.m. (0700 GMT) on Sunday.

Since April 22, the city has had a total of 727 COVID infections, according to Pang Xinghuo, deputy head of the Beijing Municipal Health Commission.

People familiar with the situation claimed Shanghai is increasing its already rigorous COVID-19 lockdown in a new drive to eliminate infections outside quarantined sections of China’s largest city by late this month.

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Curbs will likely vary among the city’s 16 districts, as some have already met the objective, but movement restrictions will be in place until the end of May, according to the sources, due to fears of a recovery, despite recent drops in case counts in the country’s biggest coronavirus outbreak.

According to reports from citizens in numerous regions as well as social media posts, the city’s authority is increasing and expanding efforts to transfer close contacts of positive cases to central quarantine centres.

Residents said they were forced to shift to such facilities despite testing negative when instances were discovered in their buildings, adding to their frustrations.