To combat a COVID-19 outbreak, the Chinese capital extended its work-from-home policy to many of its 22 million citizens, while Shanghai increased testing and curbs to maintain its hard-won “zero COVID” status after two months of lockdown.

On Sunday, Beijing reported 99 new cases, up from 61 the day before – the highest daily count so far in a month-long outbreak that has seen dozens of new illnesses every day.

“(Beijing) should fully execute the requirement of working from home in important regions and further limit the rate of working from the office to minimize the flow of people and quieten the community,” said Xu Hejian, a spokeswoman for the Beijing municipal government, at a news conference.

He stated that the capital must “hold every line of defense” against fresh instances.

Residents in six of the city’s 16 districts have been advised to work from home and avoid social events, and those who must go to work should have a negative PCR test within 48 hours. Three more encouraged specific groups to follow such rules, with each district in charge of putting them in place.

Offices in locations where working from home are encouraged must not be more than 30% full.

Despite the alarming milestone in the capital, health officials say infections in China, where COVID-19 was originally discovered in late 2019 in the central city of Wuhan, are on the decline.

In an outbreak that has put a gloom over the world’s second-largest economy, analysts at Gavekal Dragonomics estimated last week that fewer than 5% of Chinese cities were reporting infections, down from a quarter in late March.

There were fewer than 600 daily cases reported in Shanghai on Sunday, with none outside of quarantined regions, as has been the case for much of the past week.

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