Covid-19: Beijing market outbreak ‘coming to an end’, health expert says

BEIJING — The coronavirus outbreak that began at a wholesale food market in Beijing is under control, a senior health expert said, but the risk of community spread remains, after the city confirmed six new cases with no links to the original infection.

While most of the cases reported over the weekend were linked to Xinfadi market — which has been responsible for 249 patients reported since June 11 — several had no clear source of infection.

On Sunday, a married couple in Beijing were confirmed as having Covid-19 though neither had ever visited the market or knowingly been in close contact with anyone who had.

The wife, however, has a job that involves buying food from markets and delivering it to restaurants and homes in the city.

A residential compound she visited on June 12 has been mentioned in the travel histories of four other confirmed cases.

Another of the infections was a 31-year-old woman who works at the same supermarket as the unnamed wife, while a fourth was a 47-year-old food delivery worker in the city’s Chaoyang district.

The two remaining cases were a 32-year-old man and a 39-year-old woman, who had both visited the CapitaMall Grand Canyon shopping centre in Beijing’s Fengtai district.

The mall has been temporarily closed pending testing of local residents and shop workers.

Despite the apparently unconnected cases, Dr Feng Zijian, deputy director of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said the outbreak in Beijing was under control.

“By analysing the number of infections, onset of symptoms and source of infection, we can see the (outbreak) among those who had direct exposure to Xinfadi is coming to an end,” he said in an interview on state television on Monday night.

“The new cases were mostly down to community spread by those who had been exposed to the market, but the level of transmission is very low.”

The authorities’ rapid response to the Xinfadi cluster had been key to containing it, Dr Feng said.

“The Beijing outbreak was discovered very early and the strong control measures have effectively curbed the spread of the disease,” he said.

Investigators were, however, still trying to determine how the market became a transmission hub for the coronavirus, he said.

Beijing has embarked on a huge testing programme for people who might have come into contact with the pathogen found at Xinfadi. On Sunday, the municipal health bureau said it had more than doubled its testing capabilities to 1 million people a day. SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST