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China looks for superspreader link in latest surge
Beijing
Beijing
A Covid-19 superspreader could have contributed in the rapid spread of more than 200 infections linked to a food market in Beijing, experts have said, as the Chinese capital scrambles to contain a fresh outbreak that has raised fears of a second wave of infections in the country, which has largely managed to control the contagion.
New infections linked to the Xinfadi food market in Fengtai district of Beijing indicate the sign of a superspreader, Yang Zhanqiu, deputy director of the pathogen biology department at the Wuhan University, told the state media on Friday.
Speculation about the presence of a superspreader — or a Covid-19 patient who has infected several others — comes in the backdrop of 22 new cases being reported in Beijing on Friday. The city has recorded 205 new cases since June 11. A new case related to the outbreak in neighbouring province Hebei was also reported on Friday.
Michael Ryan, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) emergencies chief, said a superspreading event could have amplified the spread of the fresh outbreak in Beijing. “You get a few cases occurring and it then is a superspreading event or something happening where there’s a large amplification of the disease. And when that happens, you want to avoid that first amplification turning back into community transmission,” he said in London on Friday.
In line with Chinese researchers’ claims, Ryan confirmed that China has shared the genome sequence of the virus strain from its latest outbreak with the global community and said that it appears the virus was imported to Beijing from strains circulating in Europe.
He noted that “strains and viruses have moved around the world” throughout the pandemic. Ryan said a detailed investigation into the recent Beijing outbreak was needed to find out how the imported cases sparked such a large cluster.
The WHO official added that Beijing has done well to control the new outbreak from spreading.
Authorities have scaled up efforts to stem the transmission of the disease in the capital, testing more than 2 million in the city of 20 million since June 13. Thousands of courier and food delivery personnel, and taxi drivers are also being tested in an effort to rein in the new outbreak.
“Currently, the city has the ability to sample an average of 500,000 people per day. As of 6am on Saturday, a total of 2,297,000 people have finished sampling,” Zhang Qiang, a member of Beijing’s epidemic control office said at a press conference on Saturday.
