图片来源@全景视觉

BEIJING, June 13 (TMTPOST) Beijing municipal and district disease prevention officials have proactively conducted a massive coronavirus tests after collecting 5,424 seafood, meat and other samples from food markets，according to the municipal government.  

The results show that the samples from Xinfadi Seafood Market tested positive while those from other markets tested negative. Xinfadi Seafood Market, located between the Fourth Ring and the Fifth Ring, supplies about 80% of seafood and meat to Beijing dinner tables.

The officials also picked 1,940 vendors for nucleic acid testing with nasal swabs and 46 tested positive on Saturday. 45 vendors came from Xinfadi Seafood Market and one from a food market in Haidian District. They do not show any symptoms and are placed under isoloation and observation. 

Meanwhile, the Beijing government reported four new COVID-19 cases on Saturday and all of them were linked to the market.

The four patients, aged from 27 to 50, worked or visited the Xinfadi Seafood Market, which is now referred to by some as Beijing’s Huanan Seafood Market. They visited three different hospitals on Thursday and Friday and were diagnosed as COVID-19 by Friday.

Virus Detected from Sample of a Chopping Board 

On Friday, the novel coronavirus was detected on the salmon chopping board at Xinfadi Seafood Market, following a patient’s disclosure of a visit to that market on June 3.

The patient from Xicheng District tested positive on Thursday, marking the first domestically transmitted case in eight weeks and raising concerns of a second wave of infections in Beijing.

Zhang Yuxi, the Chairman of the market, said that the virus was found in sample tests and the salmon originated in Jingshen Seafood Market.  

Also on Friday, two new locally transmitted infections were reported in Beijing.

On Friday night, the Beijing Market Supervision and Administration Bureau issued a notice, requiring a thorough inspection on food markets following the emergence of two new coronavirus infections in the day.

Live seafood markets, frozen meat and seafood wholesale markets (including refrigerated storage facilities), supermarkets, convenient stores, grocery stories and restaurants that use lots of meat and sea food were listed as key spots for the inspection, according to the website of the municipal government agency.

On Friday night, major supermarkets in Beijing, including CSF Market and Wumart, took salmon products off the shelf.