The Chinese capital of Beijing closed some public spaces and stepped up checks at others today, as most of the city's 22 million residents embarked on more Covid-19 mass testing aimed at averting a Shanghai-like lockdown, Reuters reports.

As Beijing rolled out three rounds of mass testing this week across a number of districts, it locked down a number of residential compounds, office blocks and a university after infections were found. Some schools, entertainment venues and tourist sites were also shut.

Across Beijing, positive cases were found among the nearly 20 million samples acquired in the first round of mass testing, but numbers remained small. The city on Thursday reported 50 new infections for April 27, up from 34 a day earlier.