Beijing recorded its highest number of new Covid cases for a year and a half on Sunday, as the Chinese capital gears up to host the Winter Olympics in five days.

Beijing recorded its highest number of new Covid cases for a year and a half on Sunday, as the Chinese capital gears up to host the Winter Olympics in five days. China will hold the Games in a strict "closed-loop" bubble as part of its zero-Covid strategy of targeted lockdowns, border restrictions and lengthy quarantines. The approach has helped the world's second-largest economy keep new infections far lower than many other countries, but it is battling local outbreaks in several cities as well as in the Olympic bubble.

The upcoming Lunar New Year -- China's biggest national holiday -- presents a further challenge as millions of people return to their hometowns and mingle with family and friends.

Beijing's tally of 20 new cases on Sunday was the city's highest since June 2020, according to the National Health Commission (NHC).