On Saturday, Beijing authorities announced they have shut down one of the city's largest wholesale food market 45 people linked to the market tested positive for coronavirus.
According to a report by independent.co.uk, officials said 45 workers at the Xinfadi market tested positive for the coronavirus, although they showed no symptoms. The officials imposed lockdown in the area in efforts to prevent a second wave.
Health officials have begun testing all employees of the market, some 10,000 people, and tracing back people who have visited the Xinfadi market. Authorities also began testing other large marketplaces and taking food samples as another asymptomatic case was detected at another market.
According to a report in AP, 11 residential communities near Xinfadi market have been placed under lockdown to prevent the spread of the virus.
The announcements come after Beijing began detecting new coronavirus cases over the past two days, for the first time since April. The cluster was discovered after months of relative calm, with only handfuls of cases detected daily, mainly among arrivals from abroad.
State-run Xinhua news agency said the Xinfadi market has a total area of 112 hectares, some 1,500 management personnel and more than 4,000 tenants. The sudden spike in cases in Beijing caused an alarm among the officials as the city which was well protected from the rest of the country has not reported new cases for about two months. The new cases raised concerns of a possible resurgence of the coronavirus in the Chinese capital city.
Fears of a second wave are widespread in China, especially given that the first outbreak of coronavirus was linked to a food market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December and January.
