Beijing strengthens community prevention, control as COVID-19 cases reappear

Beijing has strengthened community-level disease prevention and control in response to the resurgence of domestically transmitted COVID-19 cases.

Nearly 100,000 community workers in 7,120 residential communities and villages in Beijing have thrown themselves into the battle against the disease, Xu Ying, an official with the Beijing municipal committee of the Communist Party of China, told a press conference June 15.

More than 8,000 dealers and workers at the Xinfadi farm produce market, in close relation with most of the new cases, received nucleic-acid tests in the early morning of June 14 and have been under medical observation, Xu said.

About 200,000 people who had visited the market since May 30 were interviewed via door-to-door inquiries, calls, social-media platforms and other methods. Nucleic-acid tests for these people are underway while they are asked to stay at home for medical observation.

Closed-off management has been implemented in a total of 21 residential communities around the Xinfadi market and the Yuquandong market, with tests for 90,000 residents in process, Xu said.

Beijing reported 36 new confirmed domestically transmitted COVID-19 cases and six new asymptomatic cases on June 14, the municipal health commission said Monday.

Thirty-four of the new cases were confirmed as being related to Xinfadi, a large wholesale market for fruit, vegetables and meat in South Beijing's Fengtai district, while two cases are currently under epidemiological investigation.