Avian Flu Diary: Beijing Adds 25 More COVID-19 Cases (n=183)

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Beijing's resurgence of COVID-19 cases - after reportedly going 56 days without a locally acquired case - began just over a week ago, and so far has led to the identification of 183 confirmed cases.

Twenty-five new cases were added over the last 24 hours (excluding asymptomatic cases) - up slightly from 21 the previous day.

Meanwhile China's National Health Commission reports a total of 32 newly diagnosed cases over teh past 24 hours, including 4 imported cases (3 in Guangdong and 1 in Gansu), and 28 local cases (25 cases in Beijing, 2 cases in Hebei, and 1 case in Liaoning).

Beijing newly reported 25 newly diagnosed cases of new coronary pneumonia

Release Date: 2020-06-19
Source: Beijing Municipal Health Commission

From 0:00 to 24:00 on June 18, 25 newly confirmed cases, 2 suspected cases, and 2 asymptomatic infections were newly reported. As of 24:00 on June 18, a total of 603 locally confirmed cases were reported, 411 were discharged, 183 were in hospital, and 9 died. 15 cases of asymptomatic infections still under observation.

From 0:00 to 24:00 on June 18, there were no new reports of confirmed cases, suspected cases and asymptomatic infections of new coronary pneumonia imported from abroad. As of 24 o'clock on June 18, a total of 174 confirmed cases imported from abroad were reported, 173 were discharged, and 1 was hospitalized.

Among the newly confirmed cases, 1 case in Xicheng District, 1 case in Haidian District, 18 cases in Fengtai District, and 5 cases in Daxing District.

There are no local newly reported confirmed cases in 12 districts of the city, specifically Pinggu District has no reported cases since the outbreak, 147 days in Yanqing District, 133 days in Huairou District, 131 days in Shunyi District, 128 days in Miyun District, 122 days in Changping District, 120 days in Tongzhou District, 4 days in Chaoyang District, 4 days in Shijingshan District, 3 days in Mentougou District, 3 days in Fangshan District, and 2 days in Dongcheng District.

Although the SARS-CoV-2 virus originated from mainland China, Chinese officials have been quick to promote the notion that this latest outbreak stems not from the original Asian strain, but from a recent importation of a European strain of the virus.

Today officials have released the genome sequences from this latest outbreak (See China News Net CDC releases new epidemic situation in Beijing and viral genome sequence data).

In a lengthy article, also posted today on the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection's website, Dr Zhang Yong of China's CDC surprisingly stated:

(translated excerpt)

"From the preliminary results of genomic epidemiology, this virus came from Europe, but it is different from the virus that is currently circulating in Europe. It is older than the virus that is currently circulating in Europe."

As for how the virus comes in of? Zhang Yong analyzed:

"This involves several possibilities. For example, the virus is lurking in the imported frozen food. During the entire storage and transportation period from abroad to the territory, the virus has not evolved because it has been frozen, so it No mutation will occur; it is also possible that the virus is lurking in a dark and humid environment such as Xinfadi agricultural wholesale market, without being disinfected or sterilized, and suddenly exposed to infected people within a certain period of time, resulting in slower evolution. The result is that these strains are closer to the old European viruses."

If confirmed, the finding of an older European strain circulating in Beijing would be more than a little curious. For some past blogs on the evolution of the European SARS-CoV-2 virus since February, you may wish to revisit: