Beijing has been hit with a massive COVID outbreak for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic just a week after the country loosened its strict “zero-COVID” restrictions. China’s National Health Commission announced Wednesday that it would no longer include asymptomatic cases in test counts as it grapples with a drastic rise in cases. “It is impossible to accurately grasp the actual number of asymptomatic infections,” the commission said in a statement. The city’s major hospitals saw 19,000 patients with flu symptoms between Dec. 5 and Dec. 11, a rise of more than six times the previous week, a health official said Monday.