China looks for superspreader link in latest surge

BEIJING: A Covid-19 superspreader could have contributed in the rapid spread of more than 200 infections linked to a food market in Beijing, experts have said, as the Chinese capital scrambles to contain a fresh outbreak that has raised fears of a second wave of infections in the country, which has largely managed to control the contagion.

New infections linked to the Xinfadi food market in Fengtai district of Beijing indicate the sign of a superspreader, Yang Zhanqiu, deputy director of the pathogen biology department at the Wuhan University, told the state media on Friday.

Speculation about the presence of a superspreader — or a Covid-19 patient who has infected several others — comes in the backdrop of 22 new cases being reported in Beijing on Friday. The city has recorded 205 new cases since June 11. A new case related to the outbreak in neighbouring province Hebei was also reported on Friday.

Michael Ryan, the WHO emergencies chief, said a superspreading event could have amplified the spread of the fresh outbreak in Beijing. “You get a few cases occurring and it then is a superspreading event or something happening where there’s a large amplification of the disease,” he said in London. Authorities have scaled up efforts to stem the transmission of the disease in Beijing, testing more than 2 million in the city of 20 million since June 13. “Currently, the city has the ability to sample 500,000 people per day,” Zhang Qiang, a member of Beijing’s epidemic control office, said.