A worker in a protective suit swabs the throat of a man at a COVID-19 testing site for those who were potentially exposed to the coronavirus outbreak at a wholesale food market in Beijing, Wednesday, June 17, 2020. As the number of cases of COVID-19 in Beijing climbed in recent days following an outbreak linked to a wholesale food market, officials announced they had identified hundreds of thousands of people who needed to be tested for the coronavirus
When the coronavirus outbreak initially surfaced in the Chinese city of Wuhan, little did the world know that it would wreak unprecedented havoc worldwide. December 31, 2019, when the Chinese reported their first coronavirus case, the term 'COVID-19' had not even been coined. Approximately about 5 months later, half the world is under a lockdown which would have been unimaginable few months back. The other half of the world has just come out of that lockdown and is having to deal with an unprecedented loss of economic stability and more importantly -- lives.
Over 8.7 million people across the globe have been infected by COVID-19 thus far, amongst these, 462,519 people succumbed to the illness. And the numbers are rising every minute.
But just when the world thought that China had gotten rid of the coronavirus, clusters of cases have emerged, and this time in the Chinese capital city of Beijing.
So has coronavirus returned to China?
Some would say yes, it has. The authorities in Beijing have locked down several districts after clusters of cases emerged out of them. The schools in the city have been closed and people are being asked to get tested for COVID-19. This has happened after Beijing did not report a single new infection for nearly 2 months. In the last four days alone, Beijing has reported 79 new COVID-19 cases. And once again, the virus has a connection to Xinfadi seafood market, which has since been sealed off.
You might remember, when the virus initially surfaced in Wuhan, it too had a connection with the Hunan wet market.
This new seafood market being talked about is about 20 times the size of the Hunan wet market where the virus was first identified.
Residents have been asked to avoid crowded places and asked to remain indoors.
Feels like déjà vu?
So have chickens come home to roost?
It's anybody's guess. Some sections of the world, including major United States institutions, have blamed China for the virus. Speculations have been ongoing that the virus was manufactured in a Wuhan lab and that it escaped and infected millions worldwide.
China has, of course, denied these claims and has refused any part in spreading COVID-19 pandemic.
