China races to prevent second COVID-19 wave

BEIJING: China imposed travel restrictions on nearly half a million people near its capital to contain a fresh coronavirus outbreak as deaths surged in other parts of the world.

The threat of a second wave hitting China, which had largely brought the virus under control, and rising tolls in Latin America and South Asia underscore the global challenge in slowing down the pandemic.

China was back in containment mode after previously lifting huge lockdowns that had confined tens of millions to their homes. Another 21 cases of the virus were reported in the past 24 hours in Beijing, taking the total to 158 since a fresh cluster was detected last week.

One case was also recorded in the neighbouring city of Tianjin and two more in Hebei province – which surrounds Beijing – prompting travel restrictions on Anxin county, home to nearly half a million people, banning most traffic going in and out of the area.

The latest outbreak started in Beijing’s sprawling Xinfadi wholesale market, which supplies more than 70 percent of the city’s fresh produce. Beijing authorities have urged people not to leave the city, closed schools again and locked down around 30 residential compounds.

Officials are also collecting around 400,000 samples a day for testing as people lined up at the Workers Stadium in central Beijing to be swabbed.

The World Health Organisation said it hoped that a few hundred million COVID-19 vaccine doses could be produced this year, and two billion by the end of 2021.

“If we’re very lucky, there will be one or two successful candidates before the end of this year,” WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said, adding that priority would be given to key workers and vulnerable people.

Europe meanwhile saw further restrictions lifted after months of confinement, with the restart of English Premier League games bringing to a sense of a return to normality.

French President Emmanuel Macron made his first overseas trip since the outbreak began, visiting London to mark the 80th anniversary of a wartime speech by General Charles de Gaulle.

Macron greeted Prime Minister Boris Johnson by pressing his palms together and the leaders upheld the two-metre social distancing rule as they posed for pictures.

In the United States, the world’s most affected country, the number of daily deaths dropped below 1,000 for a seventh day in a row but the number of new infections has reached at around 20,000 per day.

The world economy has also taken a hit, with the US Labour Department saying another 1.5 million American workers filed for unemployment benefits last week, bringing the number of people who have lost their jobs by COVID-19 to 45.7 million.