Beijing reintroduces strict lockdown following new outbreak

Beijing extends residential closures and tightens travel abroad as coronavirus infection spreads

The Beijing Municipal Health Commission reported 27 new cases of Covid disease 19 on Tuesday – bringing the total number of five days to 106 after it erupted in Xinfadi, the city’s largest wholesale food market.

The bustling and bustling market in southwestern Beijing’s Fengtai District occupies 277 acres and has more than 2,000 booths, mainly selling fruits and vegetables as well as meat and seafood. According to officials, they provide about 70% of the city’s vegetables and 10% of pork.

The market has been closed since Saturday, but its sheer size and quantity of people working or visiting there from both inside and outside Beijing have increased the risk of the disease spreading.

Through door-to-door visits and calls, the authorities tracked nearly 200,000 people who had been on the market in the two weeks before it closed. A city official told a news conference on Monday that they were told to stay at home for medical observation and to be tested for the Coronavirus.

Residential insurance

Two other food markets in Beijing were closed due to the confirmed cases associated with Shinfadi, which resulted in a strict residential closure in their vicinity.

On Tuesday, Xicheng District – adjacent to Fengtai – announced that seven residential communities around Tiantao Honglian Market will be closed after the Corona virus case was discovered on Sunday.

This follows a similar closure of apartment complexes near Xinfadi and Yokwandong Market in Haidian District. In total, 29 residential complexes were closed throughout the city.

Residential closures are similar to those imposed earlier in Wuhan, the original center of coronavirus outbreaks.

Wang Du, who lives in a banned community near Yuquandong Market, said residents could not leave the complex to buy groceries, and they had to order food online or purchase from a truck that comes to the complex once per day with potatoes, vegetables and fresh eggs.

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She said that all residents of her community had conducted DNA tests yesterday.

“Frankly, I’m not very worried,” she said. “I think we have a lot of experience with containment measures, and we are able to respond very quickly (to a new disease outbreak).”

As of Tuesday morning, 276 markets for agricultural products and 33,173 restaurants had been cleared across the city, officials said.

Travel abroad is restricted

The outbreak also spread outside Beijing, with the adjacent Liaoning and Hubei provinces reporting eight cases of coronavirus associated with capital grouping groups.

On Tuesday, the southwestern Sichuan Province reported a confirmed case – a woman who returned from Beijing on June 9. She was injured while visiting her husband, who was working at Shenfady Market.

Unlike Wuhan, the epicenter of the original disease outbreak in China, Beijing has not stopped travel altogether. But external taxi services, car cleaning service and some long-distance bus lines between Beijing and neighboring provinces have been suspended, according to the State Administration Beijing Daily.

Officials said Monday that municipal authorities have also prevented groups at risk of infection, such as close contact with confirmed cases, from leaving the city.

On Tuesday, Shanghai Advertise Travelers from areas at risk of moderate to high coronavirus infection will be required to be quarantined for 14 days. One neighborhood in Beijing was designated as High Risk and 22 as Medium Risk as of Monday.

Stephen Jiang and Xun Ding of CNN contributed to the reporting.

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