CHINA has summoned 350,000 people for urgent coronavirus tests after tracing phone movements, as 21million return to lockdown in Beijing.
The measures are part of the city’s “wartime” response to a surge of 158 infections since last week – most linked to the capital’s huge Xinfadi wholesale food market.
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Associated Press reporter Mark Schiefelbein was among the 350,000 contacted by authorities in Beijing.
He reported: “After word first emerged of a cluster of cases at a sprawling wholesale market in the Chinese capital, I had gone to the area to take photographs.
“Although I never entered the Xinfadi market and only took photos from nearby streets, unknown to me, I had been flagged as a potential vector for the virus.
“My phone rang on Wednesday afternoon.
“An official from my neighborhood’s community association informed me that I should shortly report to the gates of a nearby sports stadium to be bused to a coronavirus testing site.
“The caller did not know my name, but they knew that someone associated with my cellphone number had been in the vicinity of the market.
“I may have been tracked through my cellphone.”
Countries including China and South Korea in Asia have been tracking people’s phones to see if they’ve come into contact with passersby infected with the killer bug.
Crowds of masked people waiting for tests have become a common sight in recent days across Beijing.
“It’s very difficult right now,” said musician Chen Weiwen, 31.
He added: “I don’t mind waiting, but after the test I need to leave in seven days and there may not be a flight I can get then.”
The measures are part of the city’s “wartime” response to a surge of 158 infections since last week, the majority linked to its huge Xinfadi wholesale food centre.
Residents now require a negative result on a nucleic acid test to travel, officials say, as well as to visit some attractions or return to work in industries that involve food handling.
Beijing’s new cluster of coronavirus infections may have started in April but sufferers did not show severe symptoms meaning it was impossible to stop.
The head of the country’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention revealed the new outbreak probably began at least a month earlier than first thought.
However, Gao Fu said many of those struck down by the so-called “mutant strain” were not detected as they did not show all the worrying symptoms of the killer infection.
He said the volume of mild cases in the latest outbreak may be partially responsible for sufferers slipping through the net, but then said further investigation was needed.
“A lot of asymptomatic or mild cases were detected in this outbreak and that is why the environment has such amount of virus,” said Gao at a seminar in Shanghai on Tuesday.
Reports of the new strain emerged as mass testing was carried out day and night at makeshift sites in hard-hit districts of the city.
Earlier today, Beijing reported 21 new cases of Covid-19 which was slightly down slightly on the 31 reported on Wednesday.
There were also two additional cases in Hebei province that were also linked to the Beijing cluster – which currently numbers more than 150 cases.
Beijing has now ordered all hotels be shut down, as well as restaurants in high-risk areas.
“We are now at a critical time for the prevention and control of the epidemic,” an official said of the outbreak.
Around 21million people in the Chinese capital are now living under renewed restrictions as the spike in cases continues to cripple the city.
Some are even being kept inside residential compounds sealed off with razor wire.
Before the new spike, Beijing had gone 57 days without a locally-transmitted case.
The latest infections are believed to have started in the massive Xinfandi food market which supplies 80 per cent of the city’s meat and vegetables.
The food outlet – which has now been closed – is much larger than the one in Wuhan where the first cases were detected late last year.
The Communist Party’s top disciplinary body said the outbreak underlined the urgent need to improve sanitation standards and minimise health risks at markets.
“The epidemic is a mirror that not only reflects the dirty and messy aspects of wholesale markets but also their low level management conditions,” the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said in a report.
China’s sprawling food markets have emerged as an ideal breeding ground for the coronavirus, which has now infected more than eight million people worldwide.
The first major cluster of infections was traced to the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan, where bats and other wild animals were believed to be on sale.
The CCDI report noted that most of the markets were built 20 to 30 years ago, when drainage and wastewater treatment was relatively undeveloped.
An Yufa, a professor at China Agricultural University, was cited as saying the markets must follow international practice and implement origin tracing systems as well as documentation on storage, transport and sale.
Officials in Wuhan province took 3,000 samples from tools, chopping boards and drains in 114 farmers’ markets and 107 supermarkets this week to check for potential new sources of infection.
All came up negative, they claimed.
China has promised to ban the trade and consumption and wildlife in a bid to minimise disease transmission, though the use of wild animal products in traditional medicine will still be permitted.
