{"id":4253,"date":"2020-06-13T23:14:21","date_gmt":"2020-06-13T15:14:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=4253"},"modified":"2020-06-15T12:45:28","modified_gmt":"2020-06-15T04:45:28","slug":"fresh-china-cluster-raises-fears-for-pandemic-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=4253","title":{"rendered":"Fresh China cluster raises fears for pandemic control"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

June 13 – Lockdowns were imposed in parts of Beijing on Saturday to try and prevent the spread of a new coronavirus cluster, highlighting the challenges that lie ahead even for places where outbreaks are under control.<\/p>\n

\"china\"<\/p>\n

It came as Brazil claimed the unenviable position of having the second-highest virus death toll worldwide behind the United States, with no sign the infection rate is slowing in Latin America.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Some of Europe’s hardest-hit countries meanwhile are further emerging from lockdown, even as fingers are being pointed at who is to blame for the health and economic crisis.<\/p>\n

\n

The respiratory disease was first detected in central China last year, believed to have jumped from an animal to humans at a market that sold wildlife.<\/p>\n

China largely eliminated transmission within its borders through hyper-strict lockdowns that were emulated across the globe.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

But after mass testing at a wholesale food market in southern Beijing this week detected more than 50 new infections, people were forced indoors at 11 nearby residential estates.<\/p>\n

It has fuelled fears of a resurgence in local transmission and marks a painful step backward in the capital’s return to normality.<\/p>\n

\n

Officials said the district has established a “wartime mechanism” to deal with the outbreak, as paramilitary police were seen around the market and a mass testing campaign was announced.<\/p>\n

The chairman of the Xinfadi market told state media that the virus was detected on chopping boards used to handle imported salmon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Worldwide, the pandemic has killed more than 426,000 people and infected more than 7.6 million, while wreaking large-scale economic devastation.<\/p>\n

Brazil’s health ministry recorded 909 deaths in the past 24 hours, putting the total at 41,828 — meaning the country of 212 million people has now surpassed Britain’s death toll.<\/p>\n

\n

“Some areas are at a critical stage” in Brazil, with intensive care unit occupancy levels of more than 90 percent, World Health Organization emergencies director Mike Ryan said.<\/p>\n

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who threatened last week to quit the WHO over “ideological bias”, has dismissed the virus as a “little flu”, and berated state officials for imposing lockdowns.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

World health officials have warned that the virus is far from contained.<\/p>\n

The WHO this week said the pandemic is accelerating in Africa, and on Saturday Botswana’s capital Gaborone locked down after new cases were detected.<\/p>\n

In the US, which has confirmed the most COVID-19 deaths with over 114,000, more than a dozen states, including two of the most populous, Texas, and Florida, reported their highest-ever daily case totals this week.<\/p>\n

\n

But Europe is pushing ahead with its exit from lockdown, with a number of countries preparing to reopen borders on Monday after the EU Commission urged a relaxation of restrictions.<\/p>\n

France said it would gradually reopen its borders to non-Schengen countries from next month, and Germany said it would end land border checks on Monday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Greece said it would welcome tourists again, while Poland on Saturday reopened its borders to all fellow EU members.<\/p>\n

In several European countries the focus has shifted to the courts and who might eventually be pinned with the blame over the pandemic.<\/p>\n

In hard-hit Italy, prosecutors grilled Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte for three hours over his government’s initial response.<\/p>\n

“I explained everything to prosecutors. I am totally calm,” Conte said Saturday, adding he did not fear a judicial probe would be opened.<\/p>\n

\n

Elsewhere, British Airways, EasyJet, and Ryanair launched legal action against the British government over a 14-day coronavirus quarantine system introduced this week.<\/p>\n

The pandemic has caused unemployment to soar around the world and particularly affected the poor, whose plight Pope Francis highlighted on Saturday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

“In these months when the whole world was overwhelmed by a virus that brought pain and death, distress and bewilderment, how many outstretched hands we could we see!” the pontiff said in a message for the World Day of the Poor.<\/p>\n

Sport has been returning to action around the world, mostly to empty stadiums, but more than 20,000 fans turned out in New Zealand’s Dunedin to watch a Super Rugby match on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Spectator Wendy said she had feared the country would stay locked down longer.<\/p>\n

“But I’m happy that we’re not,” she said. “Nobody’s wearing masks, it’s good.”<\/p>\n

— AFP<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

June 13 – Lockdowns were imposed in parts of Beijing on Saturday to try and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7574,59],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-covid19","category-world"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/b5c2c40e6124376730ecb48d8ff3c73abf9f3916.jpg",768,511,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/b5c2c40e6124376730ecb48d8ff3c73abf9f3916-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/b5c2c40e6124376730ecb48d8ff3c73abf9f3916-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/b5c2c40e6124376730ecb48d8ff3c73abf9f3916-768x511.jpg",640,426,true],"large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/b5c2c40e6124376730ecb48d8ff3c73abf9f3916.jpg",640,426,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/b5c2c40e6124376730ecb48d8ff3c73abf9f3916.jpg",768,511,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/b5c2c40e6124376730ecb48d8ff3c73abf9f3916.jpg",768,511,false],"newsium-slider-full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/b5c2c40e6124376730ecb48d8ff3c73abf9f3916.jpg",768,511,false],"newsium-featured":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/b5c2c40e6124376730ecb48d8ff3c73abf9f3916.jpg",768,511,false],"newsium-medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/b5c2c40e6124376730ecb48d8ff3c73abf9f3916.jpg",714,475,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Editor"]},"category_info":"COVID19<\/a> World<\/a>","tag_info":"World","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4253"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4257,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4253\/revisions\/4257"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}