CHINA / SOCIETY
46,000 residents living near Xinfadi Market to be tested
Published: Jun 14, 2020 08:02 PM

People come to Beijing Youan Hospital for COVID-19 nucleic acid tests on Sunday. Photo: Li Hao/GT

Beijing's Fengtai district will conduct nucleic acid tests on more than 46,000 residents living in the surrounding communities near Xinfadi Market, where a total of 51 confirmed cases in the capital city were traced to. 

The district has set up 24 nucleic acid detection stations, used to conduct COVID-19 tests on nearby residents.Currently, 10,881 residents have been tested in the district, according to local authorities.

Beijing reported 8 more confirmed cases on Sunday afternoon, all of whom are in connection with the Xinfadi Market, bringing total confirmed cases in the capital to 51.

Zhang Jie, a vice head of Fengtai district government, said that 8,186 throat swab samples have been collected from people related to the Xinfadi market and 5,803 samples were tested, all coming back negative.

According to the official report on Sunday afternoon, so far, 394 close contacts related to the Xinfadi Market were tracked, of whom 242 are from Fengtai district. At present, 111 people are quarantined in designated places, and the rest are under isolation at home.

The district government is making efforts to arrange all quarantined people to enter hotels for isolation. A thousand rooms from 11 hotels in the district are now ready.

Beijing health authorities re-emphasized at a Sunday press conference that anyone who had been to or had contact with the Xinfadi Market is required to report to their local communities and receive nucleic acid tests.

There are 98 nucleic acid testing institutions in Beijing with a daily capacity of 90,000 people, Beijing health authorities disclosed.