Beijing says new outbreak is “under control”will be the latest test of China’s coronavirus containment strategy.
On Thursday, Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at China’s Center for Disease Control, struck a victorious tone, declaring that the outbreak in Beijing is already “under control.”
Wu said that it is still likely that there will be newly confirmed cases linked to the market emerging in the coming days — but it is not likely due to fresh transmission.
“Newly diagnosed cases reported every day does not equal new infections and the outbreak being under control doesn’t mean there will be zero new cases tomorrow,” Wu said.
“There will be cases reported tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. These reported cases are the detection process of the previous infections. Not new infections. The new infections are only sporadic,” said Wu.
The chief epidemiologist said that it was not unexpected to see a new outbreak in Beijing, given the large number of new global cases.
“As long as there are risks of imported cases, imported infections and small-scale clusters caused by imported infections might occur anywhere in China. From this point of view, (the Beijing outbreak) is normal,” he said.