Chinese authorities have traced the recent, widespread outbreak of COVID-19 to a raucous bar and have ordered immediate mass testing of residents to try and curb the spread of the infection.
The situation comes as China has stuck to its "zero-COVID" policy that requires mass testing, quarantines, and the sequestering of anyone who has come into contact with an infected person in concentrated locations where hygiene is generally poor.
Ferocious COVID-19 Outbreak
Authorities recorded a total of 228 cases linked to the Heaven Supermarket club in the downtown Workers Stadium nightlife area. The outbreak comes after an infected person visited the area on Thursday.
Out of the infected people, 180 were customers, four were staff, and 44 were people with whom customers had later come into contact. The entire area, including the adjacent Sanlitun shopping and dining complex, was immediately shut down until further notice.
The sudden outbreak prompted authorities in the sprawling Chaoyang district to put schools back online, except for students who were taking middle and high school placement exams. They also put on hold sports gatherings in the city, as per ABC News.
The district is home to more than three million people and authorities have ordered three consecutive days of mass testing, with long lines forming and wait times of two hours or more in some places.
In the city of Shanghai, 502 people have been linked to three positive tests detected on Thursday among patrons of the Red Rose Beauty Salon. The residents involved come from 15 districts across the city which is home to roughly 25 million people. The situation has forced the first large-scale restrictions since the lockdown formally ended on June 1.
According to The Guardian, the re-emergence of infections also raised fresh concerns about the outlook for the world's second-largest economy. China has only recently shaken off the economic impact of the two-month lockdown of Shanghai that disrupted global supply chains.
China's Stringent Policies
In a statement during a news conference on Monday, Beijing Health Official Liu Xiaofeng said that epidemic prevention and control is at a critical juncture right now. They argued that the outbreak linked to the bar in the city's biggest district in Chaoyang was "still developing."
Chinese vice-premier Sun Chunlan visited the bar a show how seriously authorities are taking the situation. He said that COVID-19 prevention measures would need to be strengthened in order to prevent similar situations from occurring in the future.
On June 6, dine-in service at Beijing restaurants resumed after more than a month in which the city of 22 million people enforced various coronavirus restrictions. Many of the area's shopping centers, gyms, and other venues were closed and parts of the public transport system were suspended, with authorities urging millions of people to work from home.
China has so far recorded 5,226 deaths related to the coronavirus pandemic despite having roughly 1.4 billion people. In a news briefing, Beijing municipal government spokesperson Xu Hejian said that the recent outbreak was strongly explosive in nature and was widespread in scope, Reuters reported.
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