beijing beijings airports cancelled more than 1200 flights and schools in the chinese capital were closed again on wednesday as authorities rushed to contain a new coronavirus outbreak linked to a wholesale food marketthe city reported 31 new cases on wednesday while officials urged residents not to leave beijing with fears growing about a second wave of infections in china which had largely brought its outbreak under controltens of thousands of people linked to the new beijing virus cluster believed to have started in the sprawling xinfadi wholesale food market are being tested with almost 30 residential compounds in the city now under lockdownat least 1255 scheduled flights were cancelled wednesday morning staterun peoples daily reported nearly 70 percent of all trips to and from beijings main airportsthe outbreak had already forced authorities to announce a travel ban for residents of medium or highrisk areas of the city while requiring other residents to take nucleic acid tests in order to leave beijingmeanwhile several provinces were quarantining travellers from beijing where all schools which had mostly reopened have been ordered to close again and return to online classesthe epidemic situation in the capital is extremely severe beijing city spokesman xu hejian warned tuesdayofficials have closed 11 markets and disinfected thousands of food and beverage businesses in beijing after the outbreak was detectedthe city has now reported 137 infections over the last six days with six new asymptomatic cases and three suspected cases on wednesday according to the municipal health commissionan additional two domestic cases one in neighbouring hebei province and another in zhejiang were reported by national authorities on wednesday while there were 11 imported casesauthorities have so far banned group sports ordered people to wear masks in crowded enclosed spaces and suspended interprovincial group tours in response to the outbreakofficials said that since may 30 more than 200000 people had visited xinfadi market which supplies more than 70 percent of beijings fruit and vegetablesmore than 8000 workers there were tested and quarantineduntil the new outbreak most of chinas recent cases were nationals returning from abroad as covid19 spread globally and the government had all but declared victory against the diseasechinas center for disease control and prevention said monday that the virus type found in the beijing outbreak was a major epidemic strain in europewatch china scare 1200 flights cancelled over new coronavirus outbreak in beijing