China Locks Ruili After COVID-19 Outbreak In Fruit Market

China has closed a watermelon market in a town in Yunnan Province after a cluster of transmissions was detected.

A business person told KNG on condition of anonymity that Chinese authorities have closed Wanding, also called Wanting, and the city of Ruili, to which the border town belongs, since last Wednesday. He said 23 people tested positive for COVID-19 on 8 March.

It wasn’t the first time the fruit market had been closed.

In previous outbreaks, vendors lost a lot of business, a driver told KNG on condition of anonymity. He said that 500 lories are waiting to drop off their loads and that some of their fruit had already rotted. A melon wholesaler in Burma told KNG that 200 trucks were waiting to cross the Chinese border.

Between 1 and 8 March, 100 transmissions were discovered in Ruili, including the Wanding and Jiegao border areas.