File photo by CFP

The latest COVID-19 outbreak in Beijing has been contained, Wu Zunyou, Chinese CDC chief expert on epidemiology, said Thursday at a media conference.

When asked if Beijing's outbreak was under control, Wu answered that it was, explaining that the appearance of new confirmed cases does not mean that those patients were newly infected.
For example, the newly discovered 21 cases on Wednesday were all infected before June 12, said Wu.
Of the 21 new infections found in Beijing on Wednesday, five were considered mild, and none were considered severe, Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the municipal center for disease prevention and control, said at the press conference.
Pang said that as of now, Beijing has already reported eight cluster infection cases that are connected to Xinfadi market. 
One of the eight cases is from a restaurant, where one of the cooks purchased food at Xinfadi market and passed the virus on to a co-worker.
There will be new infections for a few days, but they will not have been infected in recent days, according to Wu. 
If Beijing had not taken timely measures to curb the spread, it would have been a repeat of Wuhan, said Wu. Beijing's outbreak was expected, and could happen in any place as the virus is still ravaging the world, said Wu, noting that it was unexpected that the outbreak happened again in a wet market, and led to so many cases. 
Wu also said that according to the epidemiological investigation, there were many more seafood merchants than other merchants in Beijing's Xinfadi market, and they also showed more symptoms than others.
As for the reason why wet markets appear to be the source of spread for the coronavirus, Wu said that seafood was stored in low temperatures and wet conditions, which helps the virus to survive, but more research is needed to confirm this. 

(With input from Global Times)