Coronavirus: China Locks Down 10 More Areas Over Outbreak
China is locking now ten more neighbourhoods in Beijing to try and contain the spread of a new coronavirus outbreak linked to a food market, authorities announced Monday.
City official Li Junjie said at a press conference that fresh cases had been found in a second wholesale market in northwestern Haidian district, and as a result, the market and nearby schools would be closed, and people living in ten communities around it placed under lockdown.
Beijing reported its second consecutive day of record new numbers of Covid-19 cases on Monday, adding urgency to efforts to rein in a sudden resurgence of the coronavirus in the Chinese capital.
The recent outbreak has been traced to a major wholesale food market, Xinfadi, which accounts for 80 per cent of Beijing’s farm produce supply sourced both domestically and from overseas.
The market has been shut, tens of thousands of nearby residents are being tested for the virus and a city-wide campaign launched to identify people who have recently visited the market or have been in contact with people who have.
