China has revealed it battles to contain an alarming new coronavirus outbreak in Beijing as it carried out 356,000 tests in only four days.

The country has imposed travel restrictions and quarantined 27 neighborhoods but ‘currently, the epidemic situation in Beijing is still on the rise,’ said top diseases official Pang Xinghuo.

Pang also admitted that ‘the risk of spreading the virus is high and it’s hard to control’ after more than 130 cases were discovered in only five days in a new wave linked to another food market.

The new outbreak has been traced to Xinfadi wholesale market that supplies 80 percent of the meat and vegetables to the capital’s 22 million residents.

Authorities launched a massive testing campaign targeting vendors, visitors, and residents while erecting barricades to isolate neighborhoods.

Beijing city spokesperson Xu Hejian warned yesterday: “The epidemic situation in the capital is extremely severe.”

China’s Vice Premier Sun Chunlan has also warned that the risk of the coronavirus spreading again is ‘very high.’

Wu Zunyou, China’s chief epidemiologist, said the next few days will be critical to understanding how coronavirus is spreading – both in Beijing and Wuhan. “These two events indicate that it starts from a market and also related to the seafood or meat,” Wu said.

“That environment, particularly the cold, wet environment, may be able to keep the virus alive for a long time.”

Schools across Beijing are closed and some bars, restaurants, and nightclubs have also shut.  Many flights have been canceled and 27 neighborhoods are in lockdown with residents banned from leaving the city.

“Two months of things loosening up, and life feeling like it’s going to be normal, and all of a sudden we’re back to where we were in February,” Nelson Quan, who lives near Yuquan East Market, which gets its vegetables and fruits from Xinfadi, expressed.

32-year-old Wei also said: “When they shut the market, it was a surprise. Many people heard and left the compounds, but my mother is old and cannot leave easily. Today, we brought her some vegetables and medicine.”

23-year-old Wang, a media worker, said: “What I’m worried about is whether there will be a level one response like it was before, making it impossible for people to work.”

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