What’s new: A first batch of 5,000 people who worked at the Xinfadi wholesale food market, the epicenter of the latest Covid-19 flare-up in Beijing, are being gradually released from mandatory quarantine as the spread of the disease has been largely contained in the capital, state-owned Xinhua News Agency reported Wednesday.
Beijing on Wednesday reported no new locally transmitted cases of Covid-19, as well as no new suspected, asymptomatic or inbound cases. Some 13 people were discharged from hospital after recovering from the disease, the Beijing municipal health commission said in a daily report.
Another 74,000 people who were exposed to the Xinfadi market will also be released from a 21-day home quarantine if their nucleic acid tests return negative results, while some coming from a riskier building in the market will need to finish a 28-day period of self-isolation.
The final disinfection of the Xinfadi wholesale market was also completed on Tuesday, after it was fully closed on June 13. It was not clear when the market will reopen.
The Background: Beijing has reported zero additional local cases for the second consecutive day, since the outbreak first emerged at Xinfadi market 27 days ago on June 11. The month-long flare-up has sickened 335 people with no fatalities. A total of 307 of the confirmed cases are still in hospital while 28 others have recovered.
But “new cases could still be reported in the coming week,” as 31 asymptomatic people are still under medical observation and thousands are under quarantine, said Pang Xinghuo, a deputy head of the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Beijing has yet to downgrade its emergency response from level two, which was raised on June 16. The municipal government has tested more than 11 million people for Covid-19, over half of its population since June 11.
Contact editor Marcus Ryder (marcusryder@caixin.com)
