COVID-19 saw the light at the end of last year and one of the first clusters came from a market in Wuhan
Beijing:
Beijing carried out mass tests for the coronavirus on Sunday after a new epidemic in the city triggered travel warnings across the country amid fears of a resurgence of the disease.
The deadly contagion has been largely brought under control in China thanks to strict bans that were imposed earlier this year but have since been lifted.
But a new cluster linked to a wholesale food market in the capital has raised a widespread alarm and raised the specter of a return to painful restrictions.
The National Health Commission (NHC) reported Sunday 57 new infections, including 36 local transmissions in Beijing, all related to the Xinfadi market.
Two other domestic infections occurred in the northeast of Liaoning province and were close contacts of the Beijing cases.
The other 19 infections concerned Chinese nationals returning from abroad.
Liaoning was part of several provinces to advise residents not to travel to Beijing due to the new epidemic – as well as cities such as Tianjin and several in Hebei Province, which surrounds Beijing.
Some local authorities have said that those arriving from Beijing should be quarantined, official media reported.
In the capital, closures have been imposed on a very small part of the city, which includes 11 residential properties near the market, which supplies most of the city’s fresh produce.
Officials said on Sunday that they plan to run virus tests on 46,000 residents in the area surrounding the market and have installed 24 test stations.
Everyone who works at Xinfadi must also undergo testing.
So far, 10,881 people have been tested in the region and eight more cases have been diagnosed on Sunday. They were not included in the NHC count earlier in the day that covered the previous 24 hours.
“I went to Xinfadi market, so I want to confirm that I am not infected,” a 32-year-old woman nicknamed Guo told AFP while standing in line in the scorching heat at a stadium while waiting a virus detection test.
“We were told that after the tests … if it is positive, we will be taken directly to the hospital.”
Locks and closures
One of the new cases on Sunday was a 56-year-old man who works as an airport bus driver and visited Xinfadi market in early June before falling ill later, the People’s Daily reported .
The meat section of the sprawling huge market was closed on Sunday and AFP journalists saw hundreds of police and security personnel as well as dozens of paramilitary police blocking access.
Efforts to locate those who visited the market have started, with local businesses and communities sending messages to city staff and residents asking them about their recent movements.
A vegetable market adjacent to Xinfadi was open on Sunday and trucks were arriving to deliver or collect stocks.
“Afraid? Not really,” a delivery driver named Zhang told AFP.
“But anyway, I have no choice – I am in the lowest class in society. So I have to keep working to make a living.”
In the surrounding streets, residents were closed and restaurants closed.
Some people used a wooden step ladder leaning against the closed entrance to a community to pass on supplies to their loved ones.
A resident by the name of Chen told AFP that he had made several trips with his car to the front door of his complex to deliver food.
“As soon as I finish delivering the supplies to my family members, I will go upstairs to join them,” he said.
“After that, I won’t be able to go out anymore.”
Food fears
COVID-19 appeared at the end of last year and one of the first clusters came from a market in the central city of Wuhan which sold wild animals for meat.
The latest epidemic in Beijing has highlighted the hygiene of the city’s food supply chain.
State media reported that the virus had been detected on cutting boards used to handle imported salmon and that major supermarkets had removed the fish from their stocks.
Beijing authorities have ordered a city-wide food safety inspection, focusing on fresh and frozen meat, poultry and fish in supermarkets, warehouses and food services.
A trader by the name of Sun, selling tomatoes and cherries in a central food market, told AFP that there were fewer customers than normal.
“People are afraid,” he said.
City authorities closed nine schools and kindergartens near Xinfadi, while sports events and interprovincial tour groups were stopped.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
