76,499 people screened for COVID-19 in Beijing

Beijing on Sunday conducted nucleic acid tests on 76,499 people, with 59 testing positive for COVID-19, according to a press conference held Monday.

A medical worker collects throat swab of a resident at a sampling site in Fengtai District of Beijing, capital of China, June 15, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua]

As of 6 a.m. Monday, 193 sampling sites had been set up across Beijing to facilitate nucleic acid testings, said Gao Xiaojun, spokesperson for the municipal health commission.

In southwestern Beijing's Fengtai District, 8,950 people from Xinfadi, a large wholesale market of fruit, vegetable, and meat, were sampled. A total of 6,075 people, or about 68 percent of the sampled, had finished nucleic acid tests and the results were negative, Gao said. Most of the newly-reported indigenous cases in Beijing were related to the now-closed Xinfadi market.

As of 2 a.m. Sunday, a total of 41,510 people had been sampled in the 11 communities around the Xinfadi Market, of whom 6,284 had been tested for COVID-19 and the results were all negative.

So far, samples from a total of 29,386 people who have been to the market over the past two weeks were collected, and 12,973 nucleic acid tests had been conducted; all tested negative.

Beijing reported 36 new confirmed domestically transmitted COVID-19 cases and six new asymptomatic cases on Sunday, bringing the total confirmed indigenous cases in the Chinese capital city to 499, the municipal health commission said Monday.