The second wave of coronavirus outbreak is staring Beijing in its face as China's capital lifted its emergency response to level two and said that it is mandatory for people to be tested for the virus before being allowed to leave the city. Movement has been restricted in areas in Beijing where new cases have surfaced.
It should be noted that COVID-19 was first reported in Wuhan in China late last year and today the entire world is fighting the virus.
The virus has again come from a food market in Beijing and it shows that the country has taken no lessons from the past. China's new outbreak appears to have started in the Xinfadi market, Beijing's largest wholesale food market as 40 samples of the virus were found in the market.
As Beijing struggles to halt the new outbreak, it has ordered all schools to close. Reports state that the outbreak has already spread to neighboring provinces.
Health authorities added that residents who are considered at high risk are banned from leaving the city. Communities have been locked down and mass testing of thousands of people has been ordered. Public transport will carry a limited number of passengers to contain the spread.
Two months ago, China had reported almost nil cases of COVID-19 but Friday looked grim for China with authorities confirming 106 cases since then.
European countries might now need to rethink their decision of opening their borders due to the resurgence of infections.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus from the World Health Organization noted that it took over two months to reach 100,000 reported cases. Presently, such a number is reported almost daily from countries located in South Asia and the Americas.
Yanzhong Huang, professor at the Center for Global Health Studies of Seton Hall University reportedly stated that the population of Beijing is much more than that of Wuhan and the costs of imposing an across-the-board shutdown are much more.
Choosing economy over health
It seems that China is thinking more about its economy than containing the spread as Huang was quoted as saying that the social, economic, and political pain might be way too high to justify a city-wide lockdown.
However, according to Beijing health officials, this time it is Europe, which is responsible for the virus strain as gene sequencing shows that the virus strain responsible for the new outbreak was related to that in Europe.
According to a tally by Johns Hopkins University, as of Tuesday, nearly 8 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed and several countries are still battling major outbreaks.
