"The coronavirus, which got discovered at the Beijing's Xinfadi wholesale market, is more dangerous than the one found in the Wuhan's Huanan seafood market, which triggered the first wave of epidemics in China," Yang Zhanqiu, deputy director of the pathogen biology department at Wuhan University said.
According to him, 79 new cases of infection detected in Beijing in four days, meaning the Beijing virus is stronger and more dangerous.
Researchers say the strain of COVID-19 found in Beijing indicates that the virus was most likely imported from Europe.
Yang said that if the type of coronavirus spreading at the Beijing market matches the type of virus in Europe, it would mean that it was imported.
Chinese authorities declared Beijing's 22nd quarter as a middle-level epidemiological risk zone. This decision followed the emergence of a new cluster of coronavirus at one of the largest seafood markets in Beijing. On June 15, police armed units entered the market.
