Beijing is reintroducing strict lockdown measures and rolling out mass testing after a fresh cluster of novel coronavirus cases emerged from the city's largest wholesale food market, sparking fears of a resurgence of the deadly outbreak.
The Chinese capital reported 36 new Covid-19 cases on Monday, bringing the total number to 79 since a locally transmitted infection was reported on June 12 for the first time in nearly two months, according to the National Health Commission.
The cases are linked to Xinfadi market in the southwest of the city, which supplies most of the capital's fresh fruit and vegetables.
The market, which also sells meat and seafood, has been shut down since Saturday.
The outbreak has already spread to the provinces of Liaoning and Hebei, where a total of five new cases were found to be close contacts of patients in Beijing.
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Beijing authorities are still trying to trace the source of the latest outbreak, however, pledging to conduct "the strictest epidemiological investigations."
Zhang Yuxi, the market's chairman, told the state-run Beijing News on Friday that the virus had been detected on a chopping board used by a seller of imported salmon at the market, leading to fears of wider contamination.
Several supermarket chains have since removed salmon from their shelves, according to Beijing Daily.
While investigations are still underway, a researcher with the Beijing Center for Disease Prevention and Control said genome sequencing indicated the virus found in the market is similar to strains normally found in Europe.
"But it is still uncertain how the virus originated. It could have come from contaminated seafood or meat, or been transmitted by people who have come into the market via their secretions," Yang Peng, the researcher, told state broadcaster CCTV on Sunday.
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