Beijing residents are rounded up and put in quarantine as the city goes back into lock-down and new travel bans

China is rounding up Beijing residents and forcing them into quarantine as the capital goes back into lock-down amid an ‘extremely severe’ coronavirus outbreak, which is being blamed on European salmon. Footage shows officials in hazmat suits barking orders through a megaphone while people line up in queues and pack into buses amid fears that a second wave of virus cases is about to hit the country.  Activist Jennifer Zeng, who posted the footage, claims that seven hotels were requisitioned as quarantine sites with people rounded up in an all-day operation after an outbreak linked to the Xinfadi wholesale market.   

Beijing has today reported 27 new infections from the Xinfadi cluster and cases have spiked in recent days after mass testing and draconian lock-downs appeared to have brought China’s outbreak to a virtual standstill. The boss of the Xinfadi market on Saturday told reporters that researchers had found traces of the novel coronavirus on a chopping board used to cut imported salmon. The Chinese Center for Disease has however come out to say there is no evidence to suggest contaminated salmon played a role in the outbreak.

Today’s new cases took the number of confirmed infections in Beijing over the past five days to 106, as authorities locked down almost 30 communities in the city and tested tens of thousands of people. Those at most risk of having come in contact with the virus were also banned from leaving the city, in measures echoing the drastic lock-down in Wuhan where the disease was first detected late last year. China now faces a dilemma on how drastically to deal with new outbreaks while keeping the momentum in its economic recovery – a situation shared by other countries such as New Zealand that have beaten the virus. Beijing has not set an GDP growth target for this year for the first time in decades, but analysts say it will have to grow GDP by three per cent to steady its economy.

There remains a sense of unease on Asian and global markets about signs of a COVID-19 resurgence, just as the city was getting back on track and after months of no new cases. ‘A cluster like this is a concern and it needs to be investigated and controlled – and that is exactly what the Chinese authorities are doing,’ WHO emergencies director Mike Ryan said. China had eased much of its anti-coronavirus measures in recent months as the government all but declared victory against the disease that emerged in Wuhan late last year.

“The epidemic situation in the capital is extremely severe,’ Beijing city spokesman Xu Hejian warned at a press conference. The country’s Vice Premier Sun Chunlan urged the city’s officials to impose ‘the strictest’ virus control measures to contain the spread of the virus, which has been linked to a massive food wholesale market called Xinfadi.  The World Health Organization had already expressed concern about the cluster, pointing to Beijing’s size and connectivity. Officials in the city said they would test stall owners and managers at all of its food markets, restaurants and government canteens. All markets, restaurants, canteens and offices have been instructed to carry out deep clean and disinfection. Other public facilities, such as museums, galleries and parks, can only run at 30 per cent of its maximum capacity.  –Daily Mail