Beijing has scrambled to tighten travel restrictions and expand vaccination campaigns in an effort to crush rising COVID-19 infections; as the 100-day countdown to the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics begins, an official says the outbreak poses the biggest challenge. Beijing is at a critical stage of controlling COVID-19, Pang Xinghuo, vice head of the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control, said at a briefing on Oct. 27. As of Monday, China has reported nearly 250 locally transmitted cases in the recent outbreak, with 21 in Beijing and 110 in Inner Mongolia, a region neighboring the capital. The figure is likely to not reflect the true total, given the regime is known to grossly under-report its virus numbers. Nevertheless, authorities have been on high alert as most of the infections have cross-region travel histories. The first two confirmed cases of the new wave, a couple from Shanghai, had traveled through …