Single case sends 5 million into lockdown

Nearly five million people in areas around Beijing have been ordered into a strict sevenday lockdown after the discovery of a single case of coronavirus as authorities battle to prevent its spread to the capital. Authorities imposed lockdown measures on Langfang, a city of almost five million people about 80 kilometres south of the capital, and restricted all outbound transport to ‘‘prevent the pandemic from spreading beyond’’. The quarantinewas announced hours after the nearby county of Guan reported its first case of the coronavirus, in a woman who commutes to Beijing, and imposed similar restrictions.