An outbreak in Beijing of covid-19 is causing alarm

“THE SAFETY and stability of the capital has a direct impact on the overall work of the party and government.” So Xi Jinping, China’s leader, reminded officials in February, as he urged them to pay particular attention to keeping Beijing free of covid-19. For most of the past eight weeks, city officials have had reason to feel chuffed, with no new cases involving local transmission (and usually only a handful at most every day elsewhere in China). Indeed, life had returned almost to normal in the capital, except for the rarity of foreign faces—the country’s borders remain shut to most non-citizens. Then the mood in Beijing suddenly changed.

Officials confirmed an outbreak of new infections on June 11th, concentrated in Fengtai, a south-western district. The number of cases in the city climbed steeply each following day. By the time The Economist went to press, 158 people in Beijing had been confirmed to have the disease. Many of them had visited or worked in Xinfadi, a sprawling wholesale market that is the single largest source of the city’s fresh fruit, vegetables, meat and seafood. The discovery of the coronavirus on a board on which salmon had been chopped prompted speculation by officials that the imported fish was a possible source. Many scientists deem this unlikely.