BEIJING (BLOOMBERG) – China is racing to control a new outbreak in Beijing that reached nearly 100 infections over the weekend, providing the biggest test of the country’s coronavirus containment strategy since the pathogen first emerged in Wuhan.
Authorities on Monday (June 15) announced 49 new cases, 36 of which were linked to the city's largest fruit and vegetable market, Xinfadi, in Beijing's Fengtai district. The market was closed on Saturday after it was identified as being at the centre of the cluster of cases.
Officials are fanning out over housing compounds, knocking on doors to question residents on whether they have been to or had contact with anyone who has visited the market where the outbreak is believed to have originated.
In the Xicheng district where the first case from the new outbreak was found, people lined up late at night over the weekend at a sports stadium that has been re-purposed as a testing centre. Cases have now spread to another market - the Yuquandong seafood market in Haidian district - and more than 20 residential compounds across the city were locked down by Monday.
Elementary schools for first- to third-grade students delayed the resumption of classes and high-schoolers were encouraged to study from home. Some companies told employees to work from home, housing compounds ramped up security checks and swimming pools were shuttered. Officials were also fired over the incident.
“The risk of virus spread is very high, and resolute and decisive measures are needed to prevent further spread,” vice-premier Sun Chunlan said during a state council meeting on Sunday, state media reported.
A Beijing city government spokesman, Mr Xu Hejian, said at a press briefing on Sunday that the capital had entered “an extraordinary period”.
A NEW WAVE?
The abrupt resurgence of cases in the capital of more than 20 million people threatens to disrupt the hard-won normalisation of everyday life and business after China quelled its first epidemic months ago. The outbreak in Beijing – China’s cultural and political centre where its business elites and political leadership reside – could be a reckoning for the Asian giant’s strategy of aggressive virus control.
While China has contained outbreaks in its central and northeastern regions through oppressive lockdowns, it has never had a significant flare-up in a major city until now. There are already signs of hesitation to impose the costly and disruptive measures China has used elsewhere: while transport links were cut off quickly in northeastern provinces when a new cluster emerged last month, Beijing’s domestic flights and train services were still running without interruption as of Monday morning.
But with new cases likely to grow as mass testing gets underway, an escalation of restrictions in the capital could happen quickly.
“One possibility is that further infections will be identified across the city in the coming days, and a city-wide lockdown will be implemented for a few weeks,” said Professor Ben Cowling, division head of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of Hong Kong.
“Lockdowns in China can be very effective because of the infrastructure for restricting people from leaving their homes but at the same time ensuring that they have sufficient food and other essentials.”
The new outbreak is re-igniting fears that the pandemic, which has sickened nearly 8 million people and killed more than 430,000 worldwide, is nowhere close to burning out. Infections in Japan’s capital of Tokyo and South Korea's capital of Seoul are also on the rise, while American states like Florida are reporting record case growth.
FROZEN FOOD FEARS
Beijing, which had previously gone 55 days during which its only new infections were citizens returning from abroad, reported a total of 79 cases over the past four days.
The first case in the new outbreak was discovered on Thursday after a 52-year old man surnamed Tang was confirmed to have the virus, Guardian reported. On Friday, authorities reported another six cases – all of them, including Tang, linked to the Xinfadi market.
Mr Zhang Yuxi, the market’s chairman, said on Friday that the virus has been traced to a chopping board used by a seller of imported salmon at the market, but officials remain stumped over the new cluster’s origins.
Beijing locked down 10 residential compounds in Haidian district on Monday, after finding coronavirus cases at the nearby Yuquandong market, all linked to the Xinfadi epicentre, Mr Li Junjie, executive vice-head of Haidian district, said at a city government briefing.
Genome sequencing of the virus points to its source being Europe and the new outbreak could have originated from contaminated seafood or meat that was imported into China, said Dr Yang Peng, a researcher with the Beijing Centre for Diseases Prevention and Control in an interview on state television CCTV, on Sunday.
Dr Wu Zunyou, the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention’s chief expert, advised Beijing residents not to buy imported agricultural products or frozen food. He said the virus can survive on the surface of frozen food for up to three months and that the agency “highly suspects” contaminated goods as the source of the latest outbreak.
The market, which supplies 80 per cent of Beijing’s farm produce, was closed on Saturday for disinfection while more than 10,000 merchants and employees will undergo testing. Authorities said that more than 70,000 people had been tested by Sunday – 59 of whom were found positive for the virus.
Several neighbourhoods in Beijing, including the financial district that is home to the headquarters of China’s biggest banks and financial firms, have seen their risk levels raised to medium from low. The deputy head of the district that is home to the wholesale market and the general manager of the market have been dismissed for "failing to implement" proper virus prevention and control work.
GROWING PANIC
“I can sense the panic although I live quite far away from the market,” said Beijing resident Cathy Liu, 26, an intellectual property analyst. “The unknown origin makes it even more terrifying. We can’t rule out the possibility of a huge outbreak in Beijing.”
There are also fears that the virus will spread from Beijing across the rest of the country. Several Chinese cities have urged their residents not to travel to the capital, Guardian reported.
Over the weekend, Liaoning and Hebei provinces reported new cases believed linked to those in Beijing. On Monday, Sichuan province reported one suspected case.
Beijing's new cases in Beijing are especially alarming given that the city has for months been under strict travel restrictions and quarantine measures to prevent the spread of infections from other parts of the country. The capital had only just begun to return to normal with residents returning to work and going out again.
Global Times editor Hu Xijin sounded a positive note, however.
“There is no way Beijing becomes Wuhan 2.0," he wrote on Twitter on Sunday. "The world will see China’s powerful capacity in controlling the epidemic, including government’s strong leadership, respect to science, public’s willingness to cooperate and nationwide coordination of control measures. We will win again.”
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2020-06-15 09:32:31Z
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