City authorities are moving quickly to stem a new outbreak of COVID-19 in Beijing after the discovery of seven cases in the past two days
BEIJING —
City authorities are moving quickly to stem a new outbreak of COVID-19 in Beijing after the discovery of seven cases in the past two days.
The National Health Commission said that six cases were confirmed on Friday. The first case was reported the previous day. They are the first locally transmitted cases in the Chinese capital in more than 50 days.
Chinese media said at least two of the infected people had visited a wholesale market dealing in fresh food. Authorities said all workers at the Xinfadi market were being tested for the coronavirus and also ordered the testing of food and environmental samples from all the city’s wholesale food markets.
Earlier, the city said it would delay the planned reopening of school on Monday for first to third graders in primary school because of the new cases.
The Health Commission said that five imported cases were reported elsewhere in China in the last 24 hours, bringing the daily total to 11 and the nationwide cumulative total to 83,075. The death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.
In other developments in the Asia-Pacific region:
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea has reported 49 new cases of COVID-19, most of them in the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area, where health authorities have been struggling to slow transmissions linked to entertainment and leisure activities, church gatherings and low-income workers who couldn’t afford to stay home. The figures released by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Saturday brought national totals to 12,051 cases and 277 deaths. The KCDC said 44 of the new cases were reported from the greater capital area, which is home to half of the country’s 51 million people. KCDC Director Jung Eun-kyeong has pleaded with residents to stay home over the weekend, saying there was “high concern” that increased public activity would lead to a massive circulation of the virus.
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