Beijing has vowed to promote vaccine development and made contingency plans to cope with the epidemic as the Chinese capital city is entering autumn and risk of virus resurgence gets higher. 

On Thursday, Beijing's local legislature heard an epidemic prevention report that detailed the city's plan to build a new public health treatment center, promote the international phase III clinical trial of an inactivated COVID-19 vaccine and prepare for the vaccine's large-scale production.

Recognizing the presence of coronavirus risk, Beijing will continue to enhance the authority of local Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), standardize the institutional mechanisms of both municipal- and district-level CDCs, as well as step up the capacities of epidemic investigations and contingency management, the report noted.

An epidemic investigation team consisting of 3,600 people has been set up during the outbreak, according to the report.

Beijing-based vaccine manufactures such as Sinovac and CNBG will be assisted by the local government to work on their vaccine projects, while the city is also advancing some of the key technologies of medical equipment's manufacturing to assure a steable domestic suplly chain, the report said.

Since the first COVID-19 case was detected in Beijing on January 19, the city reported a total of 935 confirmed cases and nine deaths, a death rate less than one percent, according to local government.

Among the confirmed cases, 176 were from overseas and 926 patients were discharged from hospitals. The latest discharges happened on August 25.