Beijing Cancels Plans To Reopen Movie Theaters, Nixes Sports Events After New COVID-19 Cases Emerge

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Beijing health officials are pulling back from plans to widen the reopening of businesses in the city, including movie theaters, according to a China news website.

Supchina.com reports that three new coronavirus cases in the past two days have spooked authorities, causing them to reinstitute social distancing rules and reverse decisions on reopening businesses. As a result, indoor entertainment venues, including movie theaters and karaoke rooms, will remain closed until further notice.

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Likewise, all sporting events are on hold, and schools that were to reopen Monday will no longer welcome back students.

Six wholesale markets visited by the afflicated patients were also ordered closed, and group meals in restaurants are banned.

The new cases first appeared on Thursday after no new cases for nearly two months. One patient, described as a 52-year-old man, didn’t leave the city and wasn’t in recent contact with anyone who had traveled overseas. He checked into a hospital on Wednesday with a fever.

A day later, two more infected people surfaced. The patients were coworkers at a meat research center and also had no recent contact with anyone who had traveled overseas. However, one of them traveled to the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao for a five-day business trip before falling ill.

Fearing a second wave of infections, Chinese officials have come down hard, closing off communities where the new infected lived. Residents there are also subject to temperature checks, and authorities are working to disinfect public locations and implement a track and trace program.

The crackdown comes after Beijing scapped a mandatory 14-day quarantine for travelers arriving from other parts of China. The city also allowed most businesses to reopen.

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