The Continued Wave Of COVID-19 In Beijing Reminds Us The Coronavirus Has Not Vanished

Photo illustration (Zhang Kaiyv / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - For 55 days, the Chinese capital Beijing has not reported any locally transmitted infections. Life returns to normal, businesses and schools are reopening. People went back to work. Public transportation and city parks were once again full of people. Another language, Beijing is living a new normal.

However, hopes of living the new normal as well as it were shattered last week. Several new COVID-19 cases have emerged from the city's largest grocery market. As many as 180 people were reportedly infected with COVID-19 on Friday, June 12 last week.

Within days, the metropolitan city with a population of more than 20 million people has returned to lockdown, although not as big as before. Authorities are reintroducing measures used previously to counter the first wave of COVID-19.

They closed housing, schools and barred hundreds of thousands of people deemed at risk of transmitting the virus from leaving Beijing. About 356,000 people were tested in just five days.

Beijing was previously considered the safest city from COVID-19 in China. However, the return of COVID-19 cases is a vivid reminder of how easily it is returning to places where it is thought to have been tamed.

Launching CNN, Friday, June 19, five days before the start of the current outbreak, Beijing authorities have just lowered the public health emergency alert level from Level 2 to Level 3. Now health status in Beijing was raised back to Level 2 on the evening of Tuesday 16 June.

Similar cases have occurred recently. South Korea, the country most often praised for its success in controlling the virus, has been battling a surge in COVID-19 cases since late May. The spike in the virus came after the relaxation of social distancing rules and the reopening of schools. Singapore is also considered to have a success story of warding off COVID-19, until finally there was a wave of COVID-19 cases in April among migrant workers living in overcrowded dormitories.

"This (second) outbreak in Beijing may not have started in late May or early June, but maybe a month earlier," said Gao Fu, director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), at a meeting in Shanghai.

The new case in Beijing is the worst of the COVID-19 revival. Authorities are still trying to trace the source. Previously, reports had linked the outbreak to seafood or meat markets, after reported traces of the virus were detected on cutting boards used by sellers of imported salmon at the market.

However, there are now concerns that the virus has been spreading for weeks before it was first detected. "There must be a lot of asymptomatic or mild cases in (the market), that's why the virus has been detected so much in the environment," he said.

Evidence from cases in the United States (US) suggests that between 25 percent and 45 percent of infected people may not have symptoms. Epidemiological studies have also shown that people without symptoms can also pass the virus to someone who is not infected.

Over the past several months, several Chinese health experts have warned of a possible second wave. Even when Chinese state media repeatedly praised the government's success in overcoming the outbreak and insinuated the failure of Western countries in dealing with COVID-19.

Chinese control

On Thursday, June 18, Wu Zunyou, China's CDC chief epidemiologist, gave a triumphant tone. He stated that the outbreak in Beijing was "under control." Wu said that it is still possible that there will be new confirmed cases related to the wholesale market.

It also said that there would be no new cases of new transmissions. "There will be cases reported tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Cases reported are from previous detection. Not new infections. New infections are only sporadic," Wu said.

The chief epidemiologist said it was unexpected to see a new outbreak in Beijing, given the sheer number of new global cases. "As long as there is a risk of imported cases, imported infections and small batches caused by imported infections may occur anywhere in China. From this point of view, (the Beijing outbreak) is normal," Wu concluded.