(Yicai Global) June 16 -- Just as life was beginning to return to normal for many of Beijing’s residents, a new cluster of the novel coronavirus was found on salmon cutting boards at the capital’s biggest wholesale food market over the weekend.

In the 72 hours since then, stringent epidemic prevention and control measures have become the norm again. Nearly 200,000 people who visited the Beijing Xinfadi Market since May 30 have been tested for the virus.

On June 11, China’s capital city announced its first coronavirus case in 56 days. Over the next three days from June 12 to 14, 79 new cases were confirmed.

The first that customers and vendors knew about the new cluster was when a dozen quarantine inspectors in full hazmat suits walked into the Xinfadi market’s beef and mutton trading hall at around 8 a.m. on June 12. The inspectors immediately shut all entrances and exits and informed stall holders that they would be tested for the virus. All meat products and chopping boards were inspected. The process lasted a whole day, only to start again the next day at 3 a.m.

"Xinfadi wholesale market is the key to tracing the origin of the virus," Xu Hejian, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee Propaganda Department, said at a news conference on June 14.

Xinfadi and other farmers’ markets have been shuttered. Entertainment and fitness venues were ordered to close and schools have delayed reopening.

Many of the vendors were taken by car to nearby hotels and other designated locations for testing and observation. Those still in quarantine on the third day can only learn about progress through the news. "The only option is to wait,” one merchant told YiMagazine yesterday. “We’ll do as we are told.”

Liu Ming had left the market to make a delivery and found it sealed on his return. His wife and daughter were inside manning their stall and were later taken to a hotel for isolation. Liu was told to self-quarantine at home. He does not know when he will see his family again, he told YiMagazine. Another vendor was thankful that she did not have a lot of stock.

With Xinfadi and other farmers’ markets out of action, supplies of fresh vegetables in the capital were suddenly stretched. Many supermarkets sold out of fresh produce over the weekend.

Grocery shopping platforms doubled their supplies over the weekend, but still could not meet demand, a member of staff told YiMagazine. "We are going to increase the supply of vegetables tonight to four times the normal level," he added.

Seventy-two hours following the discovery of a new cluster of the novel coronavirus at Beijing’s biggest wholesale food market, China’s capital city is implementing the strictest levels of epidemic controls not seen even during the height of the pandemic in February.

Nearly 200,000 people who visited Beijing Xinfadi Market since May 30 have been tested for the virus.

“Those residents who voluntarily came forward to say they had visited the market have all been tested,” an employee at the city’s Chaoyang district office told YiMagazine on June 15. “Now we are concerned about those who may have fallen through the loop.”

Authorities have sealed off 11 residential communities around the Xinfadi market in southwestern Fengtai district and 10 communities around Yuquandong market in northwestern Haidian district. They have arranged for testing to take place in the hospitals nearest to the communities and are asking all 90,000 residents to stay home for observation.

The 307th hospital of the People's Liberation Army have set up more than 10 blue sheds near their hospital to give those waiting to be tested adequate space from one another. However, given the length of the queue, the waiting area was not large enough to allow for proper distancing, YiMagazine noted on June 13.

Residents of the Yindi Homeland residential community five kilometers from Xinfadi were woken up on the morning of June 13 by a man with a megaphone ordering everyone to come down for Covid-19 testing.

"My neighbor told me that the residential area has been sealed off,” resident Zhang Minzhe told YiMagazine. “I quickly ran downstairs and sure enough I could see that the gates to the apartment complex were shut.”

Pharyngeal swab collection was carried out by three medical workers wearing personal protective equipment in one of the community’s gardens. It took a full day to take samples from all of Yindi Homeland’s 4,000 residents. 

One case was confirmed. Zhang’s family only ventures out now to dispose of the garbage. Very few people can be seen strolling around the grounds. Life has returned to how it was in early February.

This article was originally published on YiMagazine.

Editor: Chen Juan, Kim Taylor