Health

Beijing cancels 2020 Marathon over COVID-19 fears

Beijing, Dec 3 (efe-epa).- Organizers of the 2020 Beijing Marathon announced Thursday the cancellation of the event due to prevention measures adopted against the coronavirus pandemic, according to state agency Xinhua.

The Marathon is usually held between September and November but was postponed this year and will finally be canceled.

It is the first time in its 40-year history that the marathon won’t be held, according to Xinhua.

The ban takes place despite the Chinese capital, except for infections imported from abroad and asymptomatic infections, not having registered COVID-19 cases for several months.

However, the country has detected traces of coronavirus in several packages of refrigerated products in recent months, leading authorities to tighten regulations for the importation of frozen foods to prevent outbreaks.

Four cases were reported in July in Beijing related to an outbreak in the northeastern city of Dalian, and in June traces of the virus were found in a wholesale market in the capital, causing an outbreak with more than 335 confirmed cases.

More than 2 million people in Beijing were tested for COVID-19 as a result of that outbreak.

A month after the first case, on Jul. 11, the local authorities considered it controlled, both in Beijing and in other Chinese provinces where related infections had been registered.

According to the latest count by Chinese health authorities, active infections in mainland China now stands at 266, of which six are serious.

The National Health Commission reported Thursday that 16 new cases were registered throughout the country a day earlier, all of them from abroad.

The commission did not announce new COVID-19 deaths, so the figure remained at 4,634 among the 86,567 infected officially diagnosed in China since the beginning of the pandemic. EFE-EPA

jco/lds

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