106 new positive cases have emerged in Beijing since last week. This led the authorities to impose strict lockdown measures in 11 districts of the capital city and have cancelled flights & schools. 

It is being speculated that Xinfadi market is the source of these new infections. According to a BBC report, this market “accounts for around 80 per cent of Beijing’s farm produce and distributes food to China’s Northern provinces including Shandong, Shanxi, Hebei and Liaoning.” 

China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention stated that they believe these new locally transmitted cases can be traced back to a carrier who arrived from outside Beijing or China as the city has not reported any fresh case in 56 days. Wu Zunyou, an epidemiologist working with the body commented that: 

Ever since new cases suddenly emerged in Beijing, we have tried to figure out the reasons for the outbreak since there were no COVID-19 cases found over the past two months. We came up with several possibilities, and the most likely one is that the carrier of the novel coronavirus comes from outside China or other parts of China and brought it here.

After no new cases were reported for three weeks in New Zealand, the country declared itself COVID-19 free but recently, two new cases have been reported in women who arrived from the United Kingdom. 

While we may want to go back to our normal lives, COVID-19 is likely to stay. With examples like New Zealand and China that were thought to be virus-free, still, somehow experience a few cases. This is just a grave reminder that it’ll be a while till we can finally rid ourselves from this disease.