China races to curb outbreak in Beijing
Authorities in Beijing placed a swath of the city under lockdown Monday and tested tens of thousands of people as they rushed to contain a new coronavirus outbreak that marked an unnerving breach in China’s capital.
President Xi Jinping had said Beijing should be a fortress against the pandemic, and local officials have imposed strict measures to keep infections low. Until now, the efforts appeared to have protected the capital against the virus after it emerged late last year in Wuhan in central China.
The fresh outbreak has jolted China, prompting the government to fire local officials and reinstate some recently relaxed restrictions.
The city government said Monday it had tracked down 79 coronavirus infections over the previous four days. EUROPE
Nations reopen closed borders
Borders opened up across Europe on Monday after three months of coronavirus closures that began chaotically in March.
Border checks for most Europeans were dropped overnight in Germany, France and elsewhere, nearly two weeks after Italy opened its frontiers.
The European Union’s 27 nations, as well as those in the Schengen passportfree travel area, which also includes a few nonEU nations such as Switzerland, aren’t expected to start opening to visitors from outside the continent until at least the beginning of next month, and possibly later. RUSSIA
Infections on steady climb
The number of coronavirus deaths in Russia has topped 7,000 as the nation’s caseload continues to increase steadily.
Russia’s anticoronavirus task force reported Monday that the number of virus cases rose by 8,246 over the past 24 hours to reach a total of 537,210. Of those infected, 7,091 have died.
Russia has the world’s thirdhighest number of infections behind the United States and Brazil. INDIA
Hospitals face rising wave
India’s home minister has offered 500 railway carriages for use as makeshift coronavirus hospital wards as the capital New Delhi struggles to contain a spike in cases.
Delhi has about 9,000 beds dedicated to COVID19 patients among public and private hospitals, but a state government panel of experts has said that Delhi will need at least 15,000 beds by the end of June.
India’s health ministry reported a jump of more than 11,000 new coronavirus infections nationwide for a third consecutive day, taking the total caseload to more than 332,000.