Beijing shuts food market after new virus cases

Six new cases were confirmed in Beijing on Friday. Another case was reported Thursday. They are the first locally transmitted cases in the Chinese capital in more than 50 days.

Beijing: The Chinese capital has locked down 11 residential communities near a wholesale food market to try to stem a new outbreak of COVID-19.

Beijing officials said Saturday that 45 workers at the Xinfadi market tested positive for the coronavirus, though they showed no symptoms.

The food market, which has 4,000 tenants, will be disinfected after workers tested positive and the virus was found in the environment, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

The National Health Commission said that six new cases were confirmed in Beijing on Friday. Another case was reported Thursday.

Attention focused on the market after the discovery of the first three cases. Two of the infected people had been to the market and the third worked with one of them at a meat research institute, according to Chinese media reports.

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Forty environmental samples taken at the market also tested positive, city officials said.

The Beijing News newspaper said in a social media post that Communist Party members and volunteers were being organized to shop for food and other daily necessities for the affected residents.

The city, which had not had a locally transmitted infection in more 50 days, reversed some recent moves to relax coronavirus restrictions.

(AP)