BEIJING: Beijing’s airports cancelled two-thirds of all flights on Wednesday and schools in the Chinese capital were closed again as authorities rushed to contain a new coronavirus outbreak and warned infections might rise.

The city reported 31 new cases while officials urged residents not to leave Beijing, with fears growing about a second wave of infections in China, which had largely brought the contagion under control since its emergence in Wuhan late last year.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been tested so far following the fresh outbreak, which is believed to have started in the sprawling Xinfadi wholesale food market.

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 Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We may see a rise in confirmed cases in the coming days,” Pang told a regular press briefing.

Beijing has reported 137 infections over the past six days and 95 per cent of them were “mild cases”, Pang said.

The city has ramped up its testing capacity and is gathering about 400,000 samples a day, said Zhang Qiang, an official from Beijing’s epidemic prevention task force.

Since June 13, 356,000 samples have been tested. That includes swabs from workers and visitors to different markets in Beijing and communities near to spots where outbreaks have been registered.

At least 1,255 scheduled flights were cancelled on Wednesday, state-run People’s Daily reported — nearly 70 per cent of all trips to and from Beijing’s main airports.

The outbreak had already forced authorities to announce a travel ban for residents of “medium- or high-risk” areas of the city, while requiring all other residents to take tests in order to leave Beijing.

Several provinces were quarantining travellers from Beijing, where all schools — which had mostly reopened — have been ordered to close again and return to online classes.

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2020