Chinese officials have placed several parts of Beijing on lockdown after close to 100 new cases of the coronavirus were detected by healthcare workers in the past two days.
The new cluster of cases represents the biggest surge in Beijing since February, and researchers believe the uptick originated from the sprawling Xinfadi market in the capital city’s southwestern district of Fengtai, where vegetables, seafood, and fruit are traded.
“The fact that it happened in Xinfadi, a large wholesale market, is a challenge in itself as we try to carry out epidemiological investigations,” said Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention. “Beijing is facing explosive and concentrated outbreaks even though the national epidemic has basically been blocked.”
Beijing’s municipal government on Monday ordered that 90,000 people be tested for the coronavirus and instructed anyone who interacted with the Xinfadi market, which is the biggest wholesale market in all of Asia, to stay home. City officials also placed residential estates surrounding the market under strict lockdown restrictions.
In an appearance on Fox News that afternoon, guest Gordon Chang, a Chinese American author and lawyer, called the news “surprising” and said that the strain of coronavirus found in patients had been brought from Europe via “infected salmon.”
“For 55 days, Bill, there were no cases that were locally transmitted,” Chang told host Bill Hemmer. “On Thursday, you got a spike of cases, now officially 79. The World Health Organization says it’s going to be 100 in an hour. So, this is in some sense surprising.”
