Beijing raised its public health emergency response from the third to the second level due to the new cluster of local COVID-19 infections and the number of confirmed cases in the city exceeding 100 over the past five days, a senior official announced on Tuesday.
Chen Bei, deputy secretary general of the Beijing municipal government, said at a news conference that people should not leave Beijing unless their trip is essential.
All the new cases are related to the Xinfadi wholesale market in Fengtai district. The cluster of infections is believed to be associated with human-to-human transmission and contaminated objects, Chen said.
Shi Guoqing, deputy director of the emergency center of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said the novel coronavirus was found on salmon cutting boards at the Xinfadi market in Fengtai, and it was not discovered before the salmon entered the market.
Beijing's education authority announced on Tuesday night that all students in primary, junior high and senior high schools should stop on-campus classes starting on Wednesday and college students should stop returning to campus.
The city's authorities announced several measures under the second level of the public health emergency response.
Residents of Beijing's medium and high-risk areas, as well as those related to the Xinfadi market, should not leave Beijing. Other residents should not leave the city if the trip is not necessary.
Those who have to leave the city should first have negative nucleic acid test results no older than seven days.
All exhibitions, sports events and shows will be stopped and tourist services to other provinces and overseas are suspended.
Shandong, Zhejiang, Sichuan, Liaoning, Heilongjiang and Fujian provinces and Shanghai have introduced a range of quarantine measures for travelers from Beijing.
On Monday night, the Beijing municipal government asked several departments to jointly disinfect all farm produce markets and restaurants that have resumed service.
By 6 am on Tuesday, Beijing had disinfected 276 farm produce markets and closed 11 markets, according to Chen Yankai, deputy director of the municipal market supervision bureau.
Residential communities have restarted strict measures such as temperature-taking before entering.
The city government will roll out sweeping nucleic acid tests for residents living near a produce market in Xicheng district, after a market employee was confirmed to be infected with COVID-19 on Sunday.
Source: Chinadaily
