PepsiCo food factory One of PepsiCo’s food factories in Beijing has suspended production after a total of eight COVID-19 infections were reported on Saturday in the factory. Among the eight people who worked at the factory in Daxing District, two had been to the Xinfadi wholesale market, Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the Beijing center for disease control and prevention, told a press conference on Sunday. Identity theft Shandong Province has set up a special group to thoroughly investigate cases implicating people who were admitted to universities by stealing others’ identities, a government statement said on Saturday. The group, consisting of officials from the province’s commissions for discipline inspection and supervision and departments of public security and education, will examine the cases and handle them in accordance with laws and regulations to safeguard education fairness and justice, it said. The probe was triggered by recent media reports about Chen Chunxiu, 36, whose identity was stolen by another woman who attended college in her place 16 years ago. Chen, from the province’s Guanxian County, said she has retained a lawyer to defend her rights and interests. Compulsory education China’s Central budget has allocated 169.59 billion yuan (US$23.93 billion) worth of subsidies to support compulsory education in 2020, an increase of 8.3 percent year on year, the Ministry of Finance said last week. The subsidies will be spent to ensure the development of compulsory education and enhance the quality of education, according to the ministry. Starting from the spring semester this year, schools in central and western China will receive the same amount of subsidies as schools in the eastern part of the country. Primary schools will receive 650 yuan annually for every student they have and junior high schools will get 850 yuan per student, said the ministry. Outbreak under control Beijing’s epidemic situation is under control and the number of new cases is expected to drop in the coming days, said Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, on Thursday. Although Beijing has been reporting confirmed cases every day, this does not mean that all cases are newly infected, Wu said.(SD-Agencies) | 