This archive report was first published on 17 June 2020.
On June 17, 2020, Beijing's airports cancelled nearly two-thirds of all flights, and schools in the Chinese capital were closed again as authorities rushed to contain a new coronavirus outbreak.
According to official reports, the city has seen a surge in cases, with 137 new infections reported over the past six days. The majority of these cases, around 95%, have been mild.
As part of the containment efforts, hundreds of thousands of people have been tested, with thousands of food and beverage businesses disinfected. Almost 30 residential compounds in the city are now under lockdown.
“Because the Xinfadi market is the largest marketplace selling daily necessities, with thousands of migrant workers and a large number of visitors, it is hard to control the spread,” said Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Beijing has ramped up its testing capacity, gathering about 400,000 samples a day. Since June 13, 356,000 samples have been tested, including swabs from workers and visitors to different markets in Beijing and communities near to spots where outbreaks have been registered.
However, a shortage of expensive testing machines has led to delays in processing. At least 1,255 scheduled flights were cancelled on Wednesday, state-run People’s Daily reported — nearly 70 percent of all trips to and from Beijing’s main airports.
