BEIJING -- Some streets and localities in Beijing's Daxing district began mass nucleic acid testing starting Monday morning after the capital city reported two new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases on Jan 17.

About 522,000 people in the Tiangongyuan street, where the two cases reside, and its surrounding area including the district's new media industry base and Z-park Daxing Bio-medicine Industry Park, are expected to undergo nucleic acid tests in the following days.

The confirmed cases, a female and a male, were reported in the district on Sunday. The female, aged 63, was found positive during a nucleic acid test before she intended to leave the city, while the male, aged 46, is her close contact.

The Ronghui residential compound, where the cases live, has been disinfected and 6,042 of its residents have been sampled for nucleic acid tests as of 9 am Monday. All residents in the compound have been asked to stay at home for medical observation and the surrounding stores have been shut to help curb the spread of the coronavirus.