The measure was announced just days after the city shut down schools, sending home 1.7 million students.
Eight of China's nine new SARS deaths announced yesterday were in Beijing, said Health Ministry spokesman Deng Haihua.
The new deaths lifted China's death toll to 131 with almost 3,000 people sickened across the country, Deng said.
Hundreds of construction workers were working around-the-clock on a new 1,000-bed isolation camp for SARS victims on Beijing's northern outskirts.
The length of the closures of entertainment venues will depend on progress made in combatting SARS, which has killed at least 42 people and sickened 988 in Beijing, Xinhua said. Discos and karaoke parlors were also among places ordered closed.
Beijing's entertainment businesses have already suffered massive losses as nervous residents shun public places for fear of catching the virus.
Restaurants and shopping centers remained open yesterday, although customers were few. Public parks, Tiananmen Square, and historical sites such as the Forbidden City -- the sprawling former home of China's emperors -- were mostly empty.
The communist government has been widely criticized for failing to respond earlier to pleas for action and officials have replaced both Beijing's mayor and the health minister amid the outrage.
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