Beijing COVID-19 situation “Extremely Severe” warns city officials

BEIJING: The COVID-19 resurgence in China’s capital has raised alarms as the country had largely brought its outbreak under control through mass testing and lockdowns imposed earlier in the year. The city officials said that the situation is extremely severe as 27 new infections were reported from Beijing where a new cluster has sparked a huge trace-and-test programme.

The cases of confirmed infection rose to 106 as the authorities locked 30 communities in the city and tested tens of thousands of people.

Testing capacity has been expanded to 90,000 tests a day and city officials said stall owners and managers at all of the city’s food markets, restaurants and government canteens will be tested.

All indoor sports and entertainment venues in the capital have been shut and authorities are trying to trace people from Beijing who had travelled to other parts of China and encouraging those who visited the capital to get tested.

Officials said that they have so far disinfected 276 agricultural markets, closed 11 markets, and disinfected more than 33,000 food and beverage businesses in a bid to stamp out the new cluster. And more than 8,000 workers from Xinfadi, the original site of the outbreak, have been tested and sent to centralized quarantine facilities.

According to China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the virus strain found in the Beijing outbreak was a major epidemic strain in the European countries. Wu Zunyou, the body’s chief epidemiologist, said that although the virus was detected on the chopping board used for imported salmon, it still does not clearly or indicate it is from imported seafood. He added they have been trying to find the reasons for the outbreak since there were no COVID-19 cases found over the past two months and possibly think that that the carrier of the novel coronavirus has come from outside China or other parts of China to the capital.