Beijing shuts down market after new coronavirus cases reported

The Chinese government has shut down one of Beijing’s main seafood and produce markets after more than 50 people in the country’s capital tested positive for COVID-19.

The majority of the 53 people who tested positive worked at the Xinfadi market, a wholesale market located in the southern part Beijing that sells fruits, vegetables and seafood, The New York Times reported.

Beijing receives 90 percent of fruits and vegetables from the market, with more than 10,000 people working there. Traces of the virus were reportedly found on salmon cutting boards in the market, the Times said.

State-controlled newspaper The Beijing News reported that officials are working on testing all of the market’s employees.

Sporting events and interprovincial tour groups have been canceled as well, and plans for some of Beijing’s elementary school students to return to classes on Monday have been postponed.

In addition to the closure of the market, Beijing officials also shuttered nearly a dozen nearby residential areas and nine schools that had reopened since China’s initial lockdown to combat the pandemic.

The new cases are the first official cases of COVID-19 to be reported by Beijing in two months.