Beijing on Tuesday reported 27 more domestically transmitted Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the caseload to 106 in five days, the sharpest rise for the city. The spike in cases has prompted lock down of dozens of communities, sealing of food markets and large-scale nucleic acid testing.
The WHO has called Beijing’s new cluster infection a cause of concern, calling for a thorough and systematic investigation into the new outbreak in the city after not reporting a single case for nearly two months.
Overall, China reported 40 new confirmed Covid-19 cases on the mainland on Monday, of which 32 were domestically transmitted and eight were imported.
Of the domestically transmitted cases, 27 were reported in Beijing, four in Hebei Province, and one in Sichuan Province, the national health omission (NHC) said in its daily report.
In Beijing, a city of more than 21 million residents, most of the new cases confirmed from June 11 have been linked to the now-closed Xinfadi market, a large wholesale market of fruits, vegetables, and meat in Beijing’s Fengtai district, according to the local health commission.
Epidemiological investigations are ongoing into the cases which are seemingly not connected to the market.
According to the official news agency, Xinhua, more than 8,000 dealers and workers at the Xinfadi market have received nucleic acid tests and are under medical observation.
Until Sunday, Beijing carried out nucleic acid tests on nearly 77,000 people in the neighbourhood of the primary site for the new outbreak.
“About 200,000 people who had visited the market since May 30 were interviewed via door-to-door inquiries, calls, social media platforms and other methods. Nucleic acid tests for these people are underway while they are asked to stay at home for medical observation,” the Xinhua report said
“Strict closed-off management has been implemented in a total of 21 residential compounds in the vicinity of the Xinfadi market as well as the Yuquandong commodities trading market in Haidian District, where new infections were also reported,” the report added.
“The next three days will be a critical time for Beijing to face the epidemic, and the number of cases reported in the city during the next three days will determine the trend of the epidemic. Beijing was hit by the outbreak on June 11 but responded quickly on June 12 and 13, bringing the outbreak under control in time. For infected patients, the onset would be tomorrow or the day after tomorrow; if the number of reports do not increase, so to speak, (the epidemic) will basically remain stable,” Wu Zunyou, the chief epidemiologist, Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention told CCTV on Monday.
The WHO, which is yet to send a team to inspect the primary infection cluster site, said Beijing’s situation is a matter of concern.
“A cluster like this is a concern and it needs to be investigated and controlled—and that is exactly what the Chinese authorities are doing,” WHO’s emergencies director, Mike Ryan told a press conference in Geneva late on Monday.
Ryan added that countries which have implemented an immediate and comprehensive spread of measures have generally been able to contain new clusters.
“However, Beijing is a large city and a very dynamic and connected city, so there is always a concern,” he said, adding: “And I think you can see that level of concern in the response of the Chinese authorities, so we are tracking that very closely.”
Ryan, according to reports from Geneva said the WHO had offered support to the Chinese authorities leading the probe and may reinforce its own team in Beijing in the coming days as the investigation grows.
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