Beijing's new COVID-19 cases linked to Xinfadi market

Massive screening

Following the reports of new COVID-19 cases, disease control and prevention staff conducted nucleic acid tests on 1,940 people in the city's wholesale farm produce markets and supermarkets Friday. Forty-six of them tested positive for COVID-19.

Of the 517 samples collected from Xinfadi market, 45 were found positive in throat swab tests. Another positive case was from a farm produce market in Haidian District, who was a close contact of a confirmed case in Xinfadi, Pang said at the press conference Saturday.

All the 46 people have shown no symptoms, and they are under strict management and observation.

On Sunday, a new policy suggested that the scope of the test need to be widened. People working at, and living in the vicinity of, the Xinfadi market in Beijing will all undergo nucleic acid test.

Meanwhile, Beijing's centers for disease control and prevention at municipal and district levels have organized professionals to carry out investigations in wholesale markets of farm produce and large supermarkets throughout the city.

Positive nucleic acid tests were reported from the external environmental specimens related to the confirmed cases. Preliminary findings suggest these cases may have been in contact with a polluted site in the market or infected people, said Pang.