Beijing Corona Virus Out Break : Lock Down Tightens As New Corona Virus Out Break Spreads.....

            Authorities in Beijing have locked down residential compounds and fired officials over a new Covid-19 outbreak, as health officials warned the risk of the outbreak worsening was “very high”.

On Monday, authorities announced 49 new cases, 36 of which were linked to the Xinfadi seafood supermarket in Beijing’s southern Fengtai district. The wholesale market was closed on Saturday after it was identified as being at the center of a new cluster of cases.

“The risk of the epidemic spreading is very high, so we should take resolute and decisive measures,” Xu Hejian, a spokesman for the Beijing city government, said at a press briefing on Monday. On Sunday he said Beijing had entered “an extraordinary period”.

As of Monday, a total of 21 residential communities, housing about 90,000 people, near Xinfadi as well as a second seafood market in Haidian district, where cases linked to Xinfadi were also confirmed, had been closed off. Residents have been ordered to quarantine at home and undergo tests for the virus.

Beijing, which had previously gone 55 days in which the only new infections were citizens returning from other countries, has reported a total of 79 cases in the past four days. The first case in the new outbreak was discovered on Thursday after a 52-year old man surnames Tang was confirmed to have the virus. On Friday, authorities reported another six cases – all of them, including Tang, linked to the Xinfadi market.

            The new cases in Beijing are especially alarming given the strict travel restrictions and quarantine measures the city imposed to prevent cases from other parts of the country spreading to the capital. Beijing had begun to return to normal with residents returning to work and going out again.

On Monday, two officials in Fengtai district, where the Xinfadi market is located, were dismissed while the manager of the market was also fired, according to state media for “failing” to implement virus prevention measures.

On Sunday, Beijing ordered all companies to vet their employees and require any who visited the Xinfadi market or had contact with those at the market to quarantine at home for 14 days. Authorities said on Sunday that more than 70,000 people were tested – 59 of whom tested positive for the virus.

Authorities fear the virus spreading from Beijing. Several Chinese cities have urged their residents not to travel to the capital. The city of Daqing, in the north-eastern province of Heilongjiang, has started to require travelers from Beijing to undergo 21 days of isolation.

Two cases in Liaoning province and three in the surrounding Hebei province are believed to be connected to those in Beijing. On Monday, Sichuan province reported one more suspected case. A flight from Guangzhou in southern China to Dhaka, Bangladesh was cancelled after 17 passengers tested positive for the virus.

Residential compounds in Beijing have reinstated security checks and made loudspeaker announcements, phone calls and house visits asking all residents who have visited the Xinfadi market to report their recent travel. Schools have been suspended and temperature checks at malls and public places have resumed, after weeks of relaxed measures.

Researchers said they were still investigating the origins of the new outbreak, with some suggesting it had come from overseas. “It is found that the virus came from Europe and the preliminary assessment is that the virus came from overseas,” said Yang Peng, an epidemiologist with the Beijing city government.

“But it is not clear how the virus came into this market,” Yang said, according to state media, adding that the virus could have been on contaminated meat or spread from the faces of people at the market.

Globally, confirmed cases have now passed 7.9 million, with more than 433,ooo deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins tracker.

Global Times editor Hu Xijin wrote on Twitter: “There is no way Beijing becomes Wuhan 2.0. The world will see China’s powerful capacity in controlling the epidemic, including government’s strong leadership, respect to science, public’s willingness to cooperate and nationwide coordination of control measures. We will win again.”

A Chinese woman wearing a face mask travels in the subway in Beijing as the country is hit by an outbreak of the new corona virus.