Fresh cases of coronavirus have been reported from Chinese capital Beijing this week resulting in authorities shutting six major wholesale food markets and locking down few residential blocks on Friday.
According to the reports, the fresh cases have now raised fears of a resurgence of the pandemic in the Communist country after China had claimed that it had brought domestic coronavirus infections under control.
The six new cases were reported in Beijing on Friday and another one was reported on Thursday. The new cases in Beijing comes after no new cases for nearly two months.
According to the city officials, two new cases were reported on Friday are colleagues from a meat research centre in Beijing’s Fengtai District. Both the cases had not come contacted any confirmed or suspected coronavirus carriers. They are now receiving treatment at a local hospital.
Beijing put on high alert; markets, schools closed
The local government has also locked down the residential areas where the three other patients were found. The local Xinfadi meat wholesale market and Jingshen seafood market have also been closed on Friday for disinfection and environmental sample collection after both the patients had visited the market.
Beijing’s Education Commission said on Friday it had cancelled first, second and third-graders’ planned return to school on Monday — affecting some 5,20,000 students
Meanwhile, Beijing has been put on high alert and emergency response has been readied to prevent a new spike after fresh cases were detected in the city within two days.
China’s dubious data on coronavirus cases
China, which is the epicentre of the Wuhan coronavirus from where the pandemic spread to the rest of the world, had earlier claimed that the country only saw 84,000 infections and just over 4,600 deaths from coronavirus.
However, the figures published by the Chinese government has been rejected by the rest of the world resulting in widespread scepticism over the authenticity of claims made by the Chinese establishment. Even in China, discontent among people had risen after the Communist Party of China released numbers indicating that the contagion has been brought under control.
Additionally, a database leak from a Chinese military-run university had exposed dubious claims made by China regarding the number of the affected person due to the coronavirus as the leaked data had suggested that at least 640,000 people have affected contrary to the claims of only 84,000 coronavirus infections in the country.
