Beijing is ramping up mass testing to determine whether a new coronavirus outbreak in the city warrants the same strict lockdown that shut down large swathes of the world’s second-biggest economy for months. The Chinese capital on Tuesday closed another food market located near the financial district after a case linked to the original cluster was discovered. Eleven other food markets have been shuttered and almost 300 others sanitized, while nearly 30 housing compounds have been put under lockdown, local officials said. The total reported number of infections has reached 106, according to the National Health Commission.
Epidemic control workers direct and register people at a testing site for people who have had contact with the the Xinfadi Wholesale Market or someone who has, in Beijing on June 15.
Photographer: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
Beijing has restricted movement only in areas where new cases have been found. While taxis and cars from ride-hailing apps have been banned from leaving Beijing and passenger buses from some cities in nearby provinces have been halted, trains and most other forms of transport to and from Beijing remain open. Only schools in the high-risk areas have closed. Schools in rest of the city remain open for older students.
Beijing Outbreak Grows to Nearly 100 Cases in Test for China (1)
The costs of imposing an across-the-board shutdown are too high as Beijing’s population is much larger than that of Wuhan, said Yanzhong Huang, professor at the Center for Global Health Studies of Seton Hall University