Beijing shuts down market, reverses some reopening plans after more than 50 coronavirus cases found

Xinfadi market.
(Image credit: GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images)

Beijing authorities swiftly shut down the largest wholesale food market in the Chinese capital Saturday, as well as residential communities in the surrounding area, after more than 53 people tested positive for the coronavirus in the city.

Nearly every infected person had worked or shopped at the Xinfadi market, where the virus was reportedly detected on cutting boards for imported salmon. Of the 53 cases, 46 — all market employees — were asymptomatic at the time of diagnosis.

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The news out of Beijing highlights the difficulty of suppressing the virus. Similarly, in Oregon, Gov. Kate Brown (D) temporarily paused the state's reopening efforts Friday after it recorded the highest daily number of new infections since the pandemic began. Experts believe the virus could eventually make a resurgence in places where it has dwindled, although Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said a massive second wave is not "inevitable" if "you approach it the proper way." Read more at The New York Times and The Associate Press.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.