Beijing's daily covid-19 cases drop, India's rise sharply

BEIJING — China’s capital reported a decline in newly confirmed cases of coronavirus Thursday, with a public health expert saying a recent outbreak in the city was under control and the number of new cases should drop in the coming days.

Authorities have confirmed 158 cases in Beijing in the past week. Most if not all have been linked to the city’s largest wholesale food market, where thousands of people work.

Wu Zunyou from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said such outbreaks are inevitable but that this one was larger than expected because it happened in a major market.

Nevertheless, the city continued to press stricter measures to contain the outbreak.

Anyone who has been near the market since May 30, along with their close contacts, will be quarantined at home for 14 days and tested at least twice, city government official Zhang Ge said.

The city has closed its borders to all confirmed cases, suspected cases, patients with fever and close contacts from abroad and other provinces, Zhang said. China already has barred most foreigners from entering the country and even foreign diplomats arriving from abroad must under two weeks of isolation at home, he said.

All indoor public venues, including club houses and party rooms in apartment complexes, will remain closed, Zhang said. Offices, restaurants and hotels in high risk area will be shut down, he said. Flights at the city’s two airports have already been cut by half.

Officials said bus service between Beijing and other provinces would be suspended starting Friday to try to prevent the outbreak’s spread.

Beijing reported 21 cases on Thursday, down from 31 on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged China to reveal all it knows about the coronavirus outbreak that is believed to have originated in the country. Pompeo with the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, in Hawaii on Wednesday.

India recorded its the highest one-day increase of 12,281 coronavirus cases, raising the total caseload to 366,946, but the government rules out reimposing a countrywide lockdown.

India’s total deaths reached 12,237, a rise of 334 in the past 24 hours, according to a Health Ministry statement. Prime Minister Narendra Modi rejected a new lockdown, saying the country has to think about further unlocking and minimizing all possibilities of harm to people.

The lockdown that was imposed nationwide on March 25 is now restricted to high-risk areas.