New cases for 2 days in capital
Virus may spread via imported food: expert
Beijing reported two new COVID-19 cases on Friday, a day after the city reported its first domestically transmitted case in eight weeks, raising concerns of a possible resurgence of the coronavirus in the Chinese capital city.
Local authorities are urged to maintain a “wartime” status to resolutely eliminate the possibility of a second outbreak, according to a Beijing COVID-19 prevention meeting chaired by Beijing Party Secretary Cai Qi.
Chinese health experts believe sporadic cases are normal as the epidemic has not ended, but a resurgence is unlikely as the capital’s 20 million residents are deeply aware of precautions.
The two cases reported on Friday are colleagues from a meat research center in Beijing’s Fengtai district, and they are receiving treatment at a designated hospital. One patient, surnamed Liu, had traveled to Qingdao, East China’s Shandong
Province for five days, while the other had no recent travel history, a Fengtai district official said at a press conference on Friday.
On Thursday, Xicheng district reported one new case. A Beijing local surnamed Tang has been sent to Beijing Ditan Hospital, a designated COVID-19 treatment center. Two close contacts, both of whom are the patient’s family members, have been put under medical observation, the Beijing health authority announced at a press conference.
Later on Thursday night, COVID-19 nucleic acid test results of the two family members – one a fourth grade primary school student in Xicheng district – returned negative.
At Friday’s press conference, Beijing health authorities released the results of Tang’s epidemiological investigation, which showed he had visited several places, including a shopping mall and vegetable market in Fengtai district.
Beijing immediately shut down the beef and lamb trade center of wholesaler Xinfadi Market and
Jingshen sea food market in Fengtai district where Tang had visited. In total, six major wholesale markets in Beijing suspended, or partially suspended, operations on Friday.
The Qingdao health commission ruled out the possibility that Liu was infected during his Qingdao trip, as Liu and Tang both visited the Xinfadi market.
The meeting on COVID-19 prevention and control of Beijing on Thursday urged local authorities to strengthen inspection of imported meat and vegetables to prevent them from becoming the “invisible virus transmission route.”
Wu Hao, the head of the Fangzhuang community health service center in Fengtai district and a professor at Capital Medical University, urged authorities to trace the source of the meat and seafood in the Xinfadi market to see whether they were imported, as there is a possibility that products in the market could have been “polluted” by the virus before being imported to China, he told the Global Times on Friday.