Fresh Covid-19 flare-up in China could have begun a month earlier than expected: Expert

The new coronavirus cluster surfaced in China’s capital Beijing could have erupted a month earlier than predicted, according to a top infection expert. The capital has recorded a surge of 21 cases taking the toll to 158 in a week, as per the Hindustan Times report.

Gao Fu, the director of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), speculated that the second flare-up of the pandemic did not occur in early June or late May, but probably a month earlier.

“A lot of asymptomatic or mild cases were detected in this outbreak and that is why the environment has such a large amount of virus,” Gao said at a seminar in Shanghai this week, quoted as saying in the Hindustan Times report.

According to Gao, who is a frontline official of China’s fight against the coronavirus outbreak since the inception of the outbreak added that it will “…lurk in some dark, humid, polluted environments, which may be unexpected.”

“After that, it will suddenly be exposed to many people within a certain period of time,” Gao said, adding this possibility needs further investigation.

Ever since the second flare-up began, Beijing laid strict restrictions including curbs on travel to contain the virus that had emerged from the Xinfadi wholesale market.

“The epidemic is a mirror that not only reflects the dirty and messy aspects of wholesale markets but also their low-level management conditions,” the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said on Thursday, Hindustan Times reported.

State authorities have done over 3.5 lakh nucleic acid tests since Saturday. They have suspended flights, schools, and gatherings in Beijing. They fenced off some residential areas to check the new spike in infections.

Overall, China has recorded 83,293 cases and 4,634 deaths from the infection until Wednesday.

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