China blames salmon imports for new cases
Outbreak traced to food market as officials pledge flare-up will not be allowed to become ‘second Wuhan’
China has blamed imported salmon for an increase in cases in Beijing. Officials have intensified measures to contain the latest outbreak, ending 56 days without cases. Seventy-nine cases have been confirmed over the last four days. Epidemiologists suggested the new outbreak stemmed from overseas, possibly through salmon imported to Beijing’s Xinfadi market, the largest wholesale food market in Asia. Senior officials promised the Chinese capital would “not turn into a second Wuhan”.
CHINA has blamed imported salmon for a spike in cases in Beijing and vowed to avoid a “second Wuhan”.
“Beijing will not turn into a second Wuhan, spreading the virus to many cities all over the country and needing a lockdown,” Zeng Guang, a senior health official, told state media after the capital reported its highest daily infection counts since late March over two consecutive days.
Officials have ramped up measures to contain the latest outbreak, ending a 56-day streak of zero cases in the city.
Thirty-six infections were confirmed on both Saturday and Sunday, bringing the total to 79 cases over the last four days in the city of more than 20 million people.
Cases erupting in Beijing are the latest reminder that authorities in China continue to struggle with subsequent waves of the coronavirus, even after instituting draconian lockdowns and quarantine measures.
It remains unclear how people fell ill in Beijing, as China has reported nearly no local transmissions in recent weeks, finding cases primarily via infections brought in by travellers from abroad.
“Our preliminary assessment is that the virus came from overseas. We still can’t determine how it got here. It might have been on contaminated seafood or meat, or spread from the faeces of people inside the market,” Yang Peng, an epidemiologist with Beijing’s centre for disease control and prevention, told state media.
Mr Yang said genetic sequencing of the virus indicated that it could be linked to a strain from Europe.
Aggressive contact tracing has found infected people either shopped or worked in Beijing’s Xinfadi market, the largest wholesale food market in Asia, or had contact with someone who had been there.
Officials shut the market before dawn on Saturday after the novel coronavirus was reportedly detected on a chopping board used by a vendor who sold imported salmon, according to Chinese state media.
Authorities have canvassed neighbourhoods in efforts to identify those who visited the market, or came in contact with those who visited recently. Anyone with a link to the market is being tested, and some travellers arriving in other parts of China from Beijing are being told to quarantine.
Samples from nearly 9,000 people had been collected as of early yesterday. Results from the first two-thirds have come back negative, Beijing health officials said.
The neighbourhood in southern Beijing where the market is located has been deemed high risk. Ten nearby areas have been raised to medium risk, including the city’s financial district.
Some restaurants have already begun pulling salmon from their menus, and the fish has been removed from supermarket shelves.
Local authorities in other parts of China also warned against non-essential travel to Beijing. Screening measures that had been relaxed in recent weeks have been stepped up, while schools and sports venues have been ordered to close again. A plan to allow grades one to three to return to school this week has been scrapped.
To enter public places, such as shops, banks and parks, people must show a “green” health code – a clear contagion risk profile – submit to temperature checks and register personal details, such as ID and mobile numbers, to aid contact tracing.
Entering residential and office compounds means flashing compound passes.
Thousands of tons of meat and produce are sold daily at the sprawling Xinfadi market, which is about 20 times the size of the Wuhan seafood market where the coronavirus was initially detected last December.
‘[The virus] might have been on contaminated seafood or meat, or spread from faeces of people inside the market’
‘Beijing will not turn into a second Wuhan, spreading the virus to many cities all over the country and needing a lockdown’