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Beijing outbreak may be more infectious than Wuhan one
Published on: 2020-06-16
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Residents who visited or live near Beijings Xinfadi market the source of the new outbreak lining up to get tested at a sports centre in the Chinese capital yesterday

Residents who visited or live near Beijing’s Xinfadi market, the source of the new outbreak, lining up to get tested at a sports centre in Beijing
 

The coronavirus found in Beijing's Xinfadi wholesale market is probably more infectious than that detected in Wuhan's Huanan seafood market, where the first wave of epidemic in the country was detected, given a significant number of cases confirmed in only four days in the capital city, a virologist said on Monday.
 

Yang Zhanqiu, deputy director of the pathogen biology department at Wuhan University, said on Monday that 79 cases were confirmed in four days, showing the coronavirus found in Beijing is extremely contagious, likely more contagious than that found in Wuhan.

A man who visited Beijing recently being tested for Covid 19 in NanjingA man who visited Beijing recently being tested for Covid-19 in Nanjing

A researcher from the Beijing Center for Diseases Prevention and Control (Beijing CDC) said that the genome sequencing of the strain of the coronavirus which caused the new COVID-19 outbreak in Beijing at the Xinfadi wholesale food market shows it originated from Europe.
 

Yang said that if the type of coronavirus spreading in Beijing matches the type of virus sampled in the Xinfadi market and from Europe, then it is safe to say that the virus found in Beijing was "brought into" China by food or people from Europe. He is inclined to define the local outbreak in Beijing Xinfadi market as an imported outbreak.
 

Yang said the genome sequencing is like testing human DNA. The genotype of the virus does not mutate in the short term. The mutation usually occurs after two or three years, to even 10 or 20 years. And different virus test results show different genotypes, with the detection of the difference easy to tell.
 

The outbreak in Wuhan was at a low temperature in winter, which was conducive to the spread of the virus. It is summer in Beijing, which is not conducive to the spread of the virus, he added.

Chinese paramilitary police stand guard at barricaded entrances to the marketChinese paramilitary police stand guard at barricaded entrances to the market

What makes people optimistic is that China has accumulated rich experience in epidemic prevention and a strong joint prevention mechanism, and quickly adopted measures to contain the epidemic, Yang said.
 

Yang believes that different types of viruses bring new challenges to the development of vaccines.
 

"No doubt different genotypes of the virus can cause the vaccine to be less effective, or even ineffective. That means the vaccine would have to be effective against both viruses circulating in China and those in Europe, adding difficulty to developing a vaccine," Yang explained.
 

Different types of a virus may cause different symptoms or increase the difficulty of treatment, which has not been confirmed yet. However, Yang is quite sure that the European genotype will not affect the development of effective drugs for COVID-19.
 

As for the controversial question of the origin of the virus, Yang said that previous studies have shown that the coronavirus does not infect aquatic organisms such as fish, and there is little possibility for salmon to serve as an intermediate host.

There is a possibility that aquatic products or beef, mutton and poultry were contaminated by patients during processing abroad and brought into China through the cold chain.

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