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Beijing has made a timely and effective response to the recent COVID-19 outbreak in the city after a new case was reported on Thursday, Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said in an interview with CCTV on Monday.
Wu said the number of cases reported in Beijing over the next three days will determine the direction of the outbreak.
"Infected people should be showing symptoms around tomorrow and the day after tomorrow," he told CCTV. "If there is no significant growth in the number of new cases in the next two days, it means that the epidemic will basically stabilize at the current scale."
'Virus strain similar to the ones in Europe'
Viruses isolated from patients are identical with the ones collected from contaminated surfaces in the Xinfadi market, where the outbreak appears to have started, Wu said.
The expert explained that the structure of the virus did not look like the strain that appeared in Beijing two months ago, but more like that in Europe, adding that laboratory tests indicate that the strain may have originated in Europe, but also could have originated in the Americas or Russia, pending further research to help determine its origin.
Because the first case was diagnosed on Thursday, China's CDC is estimating that the earliest infection from this recent cluster would have occurred either in late May or early June, Wu said, adding that the viruses were most likely brought in Beijing from overseas.
Wu believes that the current outbreak in Beijing is a "local incident," and has a limited impact scope.
"There is no need to conduct large-scale testing in Beijing," he said, adding that close contacts of confirmed patients and people who have been to Xinfadi market need to be tested.
(Cover image via CCTV)
