The southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu declared it had entered a “wartime state” on Tuesday after recording five new local cases of COVID-19 in the past two days.

The capital of Sichuan province reported three local infections on Tuesday, which were all traceable to two people in Pidu district who were confirmed to have contracted the coronavirus the day earlier.

The three positive cases were all women, including the 20-year-old granddaughter of a couple who tested positive on Monday. The granddaughter had visited a number of bars in Chengdu. The other two women lived in the same village with the couple.

Sichuan party chief Peng Chinghua announced that Chengdu entered a “wartime state” on Tuesday, and pledged to reduce the virus’ spread to the minimum level with “resolute and strict” measures.

Chengdu Mayor Wang Fengchao also unveiled plans to conduct COVID-19 tests on all residents in Pidu district.

China has so far recorded 86,649 cases, with 4,634 deaths, since COVID-19 was first reported in Wuhan late last year.

On Tuesday morning, the health code, a mobile app developed by China to control people’s movements amid the pandemic, experienced a crash in Chengdu after many residents logged on to check their status.

The app showed a message reading “network error” and failed to display the users’ latest health status.

Elsewhere, in the eastern province of Zhejiang, authorities called on shoppers who had bought imported Brazilian beef to undergo COVID-19 tests. Samples taken from the beef packaging showed positive results for the coronavirus, authorities said.

A total of 113 shoppers have undergone testing and returned with negative results.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization hopes to visit China “as soon as possible” to study the origins of COVID-19, its secretary-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

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