Beijing authorities urged vigilance and vowed to resolutely cut all possible routes of transmission to combat COVID-19 in the capital city as the "epidemic situation remains grim," said Xu Hejian, spokesperson for the municipal government, at a regular press briefing on Saturday.

Saying that the city needs to strengthen regulation on the pricing of coronavirus nucleic acid testing, Xu noted that Beijing should ramp up its testing ability, and expand it to cover residents in all key groups and industries to detect and eliminate potential risks of virus transmission.

The Beijing Health Commission said on Saturday that 17 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases were recorded on Friday, raising total infections to 297 since June 11, when the first case from Beijing's Xinfadi market cluster was detected.

According to a health official at the briefing, a total of 25 asymptomatic cases are still under observation since June 11.

The 17 new cases registered on Friday consist of 11 males and six females aged 23-55, said an official.

Sixteen cases out of the 17 are connected to  Xinfadi wholesale market, while the other case is still under epidemiological investigation, the official added.

Read more: Beijing reports 17 new COVID-19 cases, all locally transmitted