This archive report was first published on 18 June 2020.
China Races to Contain Fresh Coronavirus Outbreak ¶
June 18, 2020
China has imposed travel restrictions on nearly half a million people near its capital to contain a fresh coronavirus outbreak, as the global death toll continues to rise.
The new outbreak in Beijing has led to a surge in cases, with 21 new infections reported in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 158 since a fresh cluster was detected last week.
Beijing authorities have urged people not to leave the city, closed schools again, and locked down around 30 residential compounds to stamp out the virus.
Officials are also collecting around 400,000 samples a day for testing, with people lining up at the Workers' Stadium in central Beijing to be swabbed.
"I don't really mind waiting, it's for the greater good and the benefit of society," said a 25-year-old shop assistant surnamed Pang.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed hope 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," said WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan.
She added that priority would be given to key workers and vulnerable people.
Elsewhere in the world, the pandemic continues to spread, with the United States, Brazil, and India reporting high numbers of new cases and deaths.
World leaders have not been immune from the disease, with Kazakhstan's former president Nursultan Nazarbayev, 79, testing positive for the coronavirus, and Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, 51, being admitted to hospital with pneumonia.
