Health authorities on Monday asked residents not to leave Beijing and directed those outside to postpone their return to the Capital while some cities in northern China suspended schools and gatherings as a fresh Covid-19 outbreak spread to 14 provinces.

The Chinese mainland on Sunday reported 59 new locally transmitted Covid-19 cases, the national health commission (NHC) said in its daily report on Monday.

Of the new local cases, 27 were reported in Heilongjiang, 10 in Gansu, nine in Hebei, six in Inner Mongolia, three in Ningxia, and one each in Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Shandong and Qinghai, the commission said.

Beijing did not report any case for Sunday but authorities still restricted entry and exit in the backdrop of spreading Covid-19 infections, said to be of the highly transmissible Delta variant.

Three districts in Beijing have announced the temporary closure of cinemas to prevent the spread of the epidemic.

“If you have fever, cough and other symptoms, please do not have meals together or participate in parties … go to the fever clinic of a nearby hospital as soon as possible, do not take medicine on your own, so as not to delay the treatment opportunity,” the NHC said in a directive to Beijing residents.

Shijiazhuang, capital of north China’s Hebei province and located close to Beijing reported six new local Covid-19 cases, and as many as 7,919 people had been placed under quarantine as of 4pm on Monday.

Kindergartens, primary and middle schools and vocational schools in Yinchuan, capital of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, as well as the cities of Shizuishan, Wuzhong and Zhongwei, were ordered to suspend in-person classes, official news agency Xinhua said in a report on Monday.

Schools were also suspended in the city of Harbin in Heilongjiang province in northeast China

“Imported Delta variant has been confirmed as the cause of the latest Covid-19 flare-up in the China-Russia border city Heihe in Heilongjiang Province,” a state media report said.

Residents of the border city are currently going through the sixth round of nucleic acid tests.

Meanwhile, the nucleic acid test results of 33,863 people who had been to Shanghai’s Disney Resort on Saturday and Sunday have come back negative, health authorities said.

The resort was shut down on Sunday after a positive Covid-19 patient visited Disneyland on Saturday.

The total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases on the mainland had reached 97,243 by Sunday, including 869 patients still receiving treatment.

More than 2.274 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines had been administered on the Chinese mainland as of Sunday, the NHC said Monday.