827,000 returnees under home observation in Beijing

About 827,000 people who returned to Beijing from an extended Lunar New Year holiday are currently undergoing a 14-day home observation, the city's epidemic control office said Friday.

Zhang Tongjun, deputy head of the office, said the city's anti-epidemic battle has entered a critical and also difficult period as pressure from coronavirus spreading from both outside and within Beijing is still high.

Zhang said 161,000 property management staffers and security guards are on duty for grassroots prevention and control around the clock. The municipal government has dispatched 842,000 masks, 27,000 thermometers and 4,350 items of protective gear to aid the fight at community and village levels citywide.