File photo

The Beijing government announced Friday that all business operations, excluding a few critical sectors, would remain closed until February 10 in order to contain the spread of novel coronavirus epidemic, effectively extending the Spring Festival holiday by a week. 

People working in epidemic prevention and control, city operations, construction of siginificant projects, and other areas concerning the national economy and people's livelihood are required to return work as previously scheduled, while being constantly monitored for fever.

Others were asked to work from home until Feb 10.

(Compiled by Shan Xin)