Outbreak contained as new cases drop in Beijing

Beijing has effectively kept the coronavirus outbreak from spreading and new local cases are decreasing as the capital uses multiple measures to reduce infections, a senior municipal official said.

Beijing reported nine new cases on Sunday, a big drop from 22 cases a day earlier, and all of them were not permanent Beijing residents, the municipal health authority said on Monday. Two of the nine were a couple.

“Beijing has contained the spread of Covid-19 cases,” Xu Hejian, a spokesman for the municipal government, said at a news conference.

The epidemic may be showing signs of abating, he said, but added that the strict measures would remain in place as ending the outbreak remained a complicated task.

In the next step, Beijing would continue to implement the strict control and prevention network created in key areas such as restaurants, hospitals and schools.

The city would also strengthen food safety controls and increase its nucleic acid testing ability, he said.

Wu Hao, a disease control expert from the National Health Commission, said Beijing was expected to see a big drop in new cases by the end of this week.

“If you control the source and cut the chain of transmission, the number will have a cliff-like drop,” he said in an interview with China Central Television on Sunday.

“Beijing didn’t choose to do a ‘flood-type’ lockdown like Wuhan earlier this year when we knew little about the virus.”