Covid-19: Beijing in a state of alert after the emergence of a new focus of infection

Correspondent in Beijing

pandemonium in Beijing. The chinese capital is again in a state of alert after the discovery Friday of a focus of infection at Covid-19 in a huge fruit and vegetable market. At least 100 people have been infected, according to the WHO, which brings back the spectre of a second wave of the epidemic in the most populous country in the world.

The anxiety is suddenly back in the megacity of 21 million people who had reported no new case for sixty days, and was progressively its activity, after months of fighting against the virus. "In one day, you return to the starting point of the epidemic. When is it going to end? It is too depressing!" confesses a used beijing thirty years old.

see also : Rebound Coronavirus: several districts of Beijing confined

At the edge of the was moist, the shopping centres have found this weekend the torpor of the winter epidemic, deserted by a population wary. The authorities have sounded the general mobilization to narrow the focus detected in the market Xinfandi, in the south-west of the capital. "The risk of the spread of the epidemic is very high, so we need to take proactive measures," said Monday, Xu Hejiang, a spokesperson for the municipal authorities.

The power has immediately initiated a campaign of massive screens, designed to test "the entire staff of the market and the inhabitants of the neighborhood", and put in quarantine ten close quarters, this complex is great as 157 football pitches and which provides the essential supplies of fresh produce to the capital. More than 76,000 test nucleic acid have already been conducted on a Monday morning, detecting 36 new cases and establishing the balance to 100 over four days. "The good news is that all the cases are linked to the market, this means that one is at the beginning of the chain of propagation, and that it is controllable. The bad news is that there is usually a traffic extraordinary Xinfandi," says Zhang Wenhong, an epidemiologist at the hospital Huashan, Shanghai, on the platform, Weibo.

back to school repulsed

About 15,000 people visit on a daily basis on this site, according to the magazine Caixin. The authorities have already raised the trace of the 200,000 people who attended the stalls these last fifteen days. The district of Daixing is even said in a "state of war", and the agents are going door-to-door to find the individuals potentially contaminated.

The exact origin of the home has not been confirmed by the authorities, but traces of the virus have been detected on imported salmon, said the boss of the market. This information was enough to fuel greater distrust of products from abroad, while China is barricade since the closure of its border on march 28.

A caution that contrast with the optimism shown in Europe.

temperature controls at the entrance of the buildings which came to be gradually lifted in the last few days have been put back in place in the emergency on the scale of the city. The municipality has postponed the start of primary school students is scheduled this Monday, and many Beijingers have decided to work at home, under the gaze of anxious for the rest of the country, where only a handful of cases have been detected in recent days.

Already, travellers from Beijing are regarded with suspicion and are subjected to reinforced controls in many of the cities frightened. The city of Daqing in the northern province of Heilongjiang has even decreed in their place a quarantine of 21 days!

see also : Coronavirus: how has China managed the epidemic

The next few days will tell if these measures to the massive and rapid implementation will define this local outbreak, as successfully done in South Korea nearby for several weeks. This is a real test in the eyes of the second world power that is expected to the birth of other nests of infection local. The answer diligent in Beijing, a showcase for the communist regime, "will serve as an excellent example for other provinces to control the outbreaks without taking the entire company", says Zhang.

The mobilization of the authorities and the vigilance of the population show that China is always lurking, in the face of a number of cases, however minimal, reported to be 1.4 billion people. A caution that contrast with the optimism shown in Europe. On Sunday, France had more than 400 new cases of Covid, and the president and Emmanuel Macron sounded the end of the containment in the Île-de-France, in a climate of relief.

The editorial team conseilleA Beijing, mass screening after the discovery of a new focus of Covid-19Coronavirus: how has China managed the épidémieSujetsZhang WenhongPékinChineAsieCoronaviruscovid-19InfographieAucun comment

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