Global COVID-19 Roundup: Fears food markets have become new 'hotbed'

Beijing registered 36 new domestically transmitted COVID-19 cases as of Saturday, all linked to a local wholesale market, prompting fears that a second wave of coronavirus might emerge from grocery outlets that are difficult to avoid.

Local authorities announced during a press conference that the strain collected from the Xinfadi wholesale market, to which all cases have been linked, is different from the version that was first encountered in China. The epidemiological investigation also detected coronavirus from an imported salmon processing table.

Beijing has since suspended operations at the market. 

Meanwhile, the city has started to conduct nucleic acid tests for COVID-19 on market staff as well as nearby residents.

In France, the wife of "patient zero" who tested positive on December 27, 2019, works in supermarket fish stall. She confirmed that she had only been exposed to fish processed in France.

Beijing is not the only city facing challenges from fresh-and-grocery related cluster infections.

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