Beijing has cancelled thousands of flights and train journeys as officials scramble to contain an outbreak which has spiked to 137 people in just six days.
Mass testing also continued throughout the night today (17th June) in 27 ‘medium risk’ neighbourhoods and one ‘high-risk’ residential community close to a market identified as the source of the latest wave of infections.
Of the 137 second-wave cases in the Chinese capital as of yesterday (16th June), 99 were found in Fengtai District, where the Xinfadi wholesale market is located, city officials said today.
Credit: AsiaWire
Beijing, which is on level two epidemic alert, estimates that more than 200,000 people, including 8,000 business owners, entered Xinfadi market since 30th May. They are being tracked, tested and quarantined.
Footage circulating online shows mass flight cancellations at both Beijing Capital International Airport and Beijing Daxing International Airport as the city edges closer to a lockdown.
Inbound and outbound train journeys are reportedly being refunded in full, though railway services have not fully stopped as non-residents are given a chance to leave the city.
Children undergoing nucleic acid tests in Beijing 
Health workers in hazmat gear carrying out nucleic acid tests
But the new wave of COVID-19 infections originating in Beijing have already spread to neighbouring provinces Hebei and nearby Zhejiang and Liaoning on the east coast.
Officials in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province in south-western China some 1,250 miles away, have also recorded new cases linked to the Xinfadi market.
Beijing has been carrying out mass nucleic acid and antibody tests in gated communities throughout the night, with images showing health workers drenched in sweat and suffering from sunstroke.
Credit: AsiaWire
The Chinese capital recorded its first case of local transmission in two months when a primary school pupil’s father tested positive on 11th June.
Coronavirus patient numbers have spiked daily and reached 31 infections yesterday.
City officials have since shut nursery, primary and secondary schools, while the reopening of universities have also been postponed.
With the shutting of Xinfadi market, which supplies more than 70 percent of the city’s fruit and vegetables, residents are turning to alternative sales points
Credit: AsiaWire
Xinfadi Market shut by authorities following a new wave of COVID-19 outbreaks 
Beijing Capital International Airport [FILE] 
Nucleic acid tests being carried out in Beijing throughout the night as the Chinese capital tries to contain a fresh COVID-19 outbreak
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Story By: John Feng, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Asia Wire Report
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