Beijing shuts biggest vegetable market after 45 Covid-19 cases
Local authorities put 11 residential sub-districts near the market under lockdown, and quarantined 139 people who had close contact with the confirmed cases
Beijing has shut down its largest wholesale market for vegetables and meat amid fears of a resurgence of coronavirus cases.
Local authorities put 11 residential sub-districts near the market under lockdown, and quarantined 139 people who had close contact with the confirmed cases, CGTN reported..
The novel coronavirus was detected on a chopping board used by a seller of imported salmon at the Xinfadi market, Global Times reported. A seafood market in Jinshen was also closed.
The capital's largest wholesale vegetable market – Xinfadi market – was shut down from 3am Saturday to curb the spread of Covid-19 after the virus was detected among a few business owners and their equipment. Swabs taken from the throats of 45 people at the market tested positive, and they had no clinical symptoms, the Beijing city government said in a statement Saturday.
The discovery came after a man who had visited the Xinfadi market in the southwest district of Fengtai on June 3, tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday, according to Beijing's Center for Disease Control and Prevention, reported Business Insider.
A person from another market in the city also tested positive after coming in contact with a previously confirmed case.
The coronavirus has an incubation period of up to 14 days before people show outward signs of sickness, while some of those infected never get sick. While China doesn't count those who are infected but without any symptoms of Covid-19 as confirmed cases, they are categorized as asymptomatic infections and quarantined.
The northern Chinese province of Liaoning also reported two new asymptomatic cases Saturday. The two people were found to have had close contact with confirmed cases in Beijing. The nation reported six new confirmed local cases for Friday, all from Beijing, and another five new imported cases, according to the National Health Commission statement on Saturday.
Beijing authorities said over 10,000 people in Xinfadi market will take a nucleic acid test, CGTN reported.
