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On the heels of yesterday's report (see China: Beijing's New COVID-19 Cluster), local health authorities are reporting 36 additional COVID-19 cases, which all appear to be linked to a large vegetable and seafood market.
Because of the way China reports on COVID-19 - often mentioning, but not including asymptomatic lab-positive individuals in their case count - media reports have varied widely in the number of cases being reported.But if we go back 6 days - to June 10th - we find that Beijing had reported the city had gone 56 days without a locally reported case, and to that date had recorded a total of 420 locally confirmed cases, 411 were discharged, and 9 deaths.
To confuse matters a bit more, China reports imported cases separately; stating that as of 24:00 on June 10, a total of 174 confirmed cases imported from abroad were reported, 173 cases were discharged, and 1 case was hospitalized.The latest report (see below) from Beijing's CDC shows 79 new (locally acquired) cases have been reported since this outbreak began late last week.
Epidemic situation released丨Beijing June 14th, 36 new cases of new coronary pneumonia were reported
Release time: 2020-06-15
Article Source: Health Beijing
From 0:00 to 24:00 on June 14, 36 newly confirmed local cases and 6 asymptomatic infected persons were newly reported, with no new suspected cases. As of 24:00 on June 14, a total of 499 locally diagnosed cases were reported, 411 were discharged, 79 were in hospital, and 9 died.
7 cases of asymptomatic infections are still under observation.
From 0:00 to 24:00 on June 14, 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 14, a total of 174 confirmed cases imported from abroad were reported, 173 were discharged, and 1 was hospitalized.
There are 8 districts in the city that have not reported newly confirmed cases for more than 14 consecutive days, specifically Pinggu District has no reported cases since the outbreak, 143 days in Yanqing District, 133 days in Mentougou District, 129 days in Huairou District, 127 days in Shunyi District, Miyun District 124 days, Changping District 118 days, Tongzhou District 116 days.
Beijing has reportedly begun mass testing for the virus, conducting more than 76,000 tests over the weekend, in hopes of both quantifying and containing this outbreak. The size and scope of this new outbreak remains unknown, and the following notice is being widely disseminated by Chinese media this morning.
Beijing: We have not fully grasped the law of the spread of the new coronavirus
2020-06-15 16:25:21
According to the Beijing News, Xu Hejian, a spokesman for the Beijing Municipal Government, introduced today that judging from the results of nucleic acid testing of people in key regions, the epidemic is highly correlated with the market of the new development area, and the law of the spread of new coronavirus has not been fully grasped. It is still spreading. The epidemic situation in the capital is very serious. We must fully understand its long-term nature, complexity, and difficulty.It is also being widely reported that Researcher Yang Peng, a member of the New Coronary Pneumonia Epidemic Prevention and Control Expert Group of the Beijing Center for Disease Control, gave an interview yesterday (June 14th) on CCTV stating that the virus appears to have arrived from Europe, and is genetically distinct from the original Chinese strain.
" Through genome-wide sequencing, it was discovered that the virus came from the direction of Europe. The preliminary determination is related to the import . However, it is still uncertain how the virus came from. It may be contaminated seafood or meat, or the secretions of people entering the market through the secretion. Spread it."Given recent speculation that a mutation (see Scripps Research Institute: SARS-CoV-2 and the D614G Mutation) in the virus - which first appeared in isolates collected in Europe last February - may have increased its transmissibility, we'll be watching closely to see how quickly Beijing is able to contain this latest outbreak.
While 79 fresh cases in Beijing pales in comparison to the 120,000+ per day we are seeing elsewhere around the world, this comes after nearly two months without a locally acquired case.
A stark reminder that no matter how well a city or a country manages to control the virus - as long as it circulates anywhere in the world - it has the potential to return.
