Eleven residential estates in south Beijing have been placed under lockdown after a new cluster of coronavirus cases connected to a nearby meat market, officials announced on Saturday.
Seven cases have so far been associated to Xinfadi meat market, six of them confirmed on Saturday, officials said. Nine nearby schools and kindergartens have been closed,AFP reported.
China announced 11 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, including six domestic cases in the capital that elevated anxieties about a resurgence.
The majority of China’s cases in recent months were abroad nationals tested as they returned home, with the domestic outbreak brought largely under control after the disease first emerged in the central city of Wuhan last year.
But the new cases have prompted Beijing officials to delay the return of students to primary schools and suspend all sporting events and group dining.
City authorities on Friday also closed two markets visited by one of the known cases.
The chairman of the Xinfadi meat wholesale market told state-run Beijing News that the virus was detected on chopping boards used to handle imported salmon.
Major supermarket chains including Wumart and Carrefour removed all stocks of salmon overnight in the capital, but said supplies of other products would not be affected, Beijing Daily reported Saturday.
The novel coronavirus is believed to have jumped from an animal to humans at a Wuhan market that sold wildlife.
Source: AFP
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