Beijing to launch COVID-19 testing of wholesale market contacts

Beijing will begin testing for COVID-19 all people who came in contact with the Xinfadi agricultural wholesale market in Fengtai district, and details of the plan will be released later today, officials said on Saturday.

Gao Xiaojun, the spokesman of the Beijing Municipal Health Commission, said the decision came after health workers found new confirmed cases, as well as viral presence in environmental samples from the market.

"The public health and security departments are formulating diagnostic plans as we speak, and the screening effort will take part across the district," he said.

Gao said Beijing currently has 98 testing institutions in total, with a maximum screening capability of over 90,000 people per day. "This will be enough to meet the needs," he said.

The Xinfadi market, the capital's largest wholesale agricultural produce market, has been shut down to curb the spread of COVID-19 after several confirmed cases were reported with links to the market, as well as health workers finding the virus on the market's equipment.

The coronavirus was detected on a chopping board used by a seller of imported salmon at Xinfadi market. The seller's salmon was from the Fengtai district's Jingshen seafood market, according to Zhang Yuxi, head of the Beijing Xinfadi Market.

The Xinfadi market, which provides 90 percent of Beijing's vegetables and fruits, will be the top priority in tracing the source of the epidemic, and a working group will be dispatched to strengthen epidemic prevention and control, Beijing's anti-epidemic leading group said at a late-night meeting on Friday.