Vice-premier stresses curbing spread of COVID-19 in Beijing

BEIJING — Vice-Premier Sun Chunlan on June 14 urged resolute measures to stem the spread of cluster cases of COVID-19 in Beijing.

Sun made the remarks at a meeting of the State Council joint prevention and control mechanism against COVID-19.

Noting that the new cluster cases in Beijing were all related to Xinfadi, a wholesale farm produce market where a large number of people gather and visit, Sun warned of the high risk of virus spreading and asked for resolute response measures.

Sun called for the "strictest epidemiological investigations" at and around the market and "thorough source tracing" to identify and control the source of infection.

She stressed boosting nucleic acid testing capacity in Beijing to cover all key areas and key population groups and expanding the scope of testing to promptly discover infections and asymptomatic cases.

Sun called on communities to strictly carry out epidemic prevention and control measures, screen for confirmed cases, suspected cases, febrile patients who might be carriers, and close contacts, and put them under quarantine at designated facilities.

More efforts should be made to establish and renovate fever clinics at all medical institutions, she said, adding that disinfection and sterilization will be carried out in farm produce markets, restaurants and distribution places across the country.

Noting that the task of regular prevention and control is still arduous, Sun called for unremitting efforts to guard against imported cases from abroad and prevent a resurgence of the outbreak at home.