Beijing's daily virus cases drop, India's rise sharply

Beijing has closed its borders to all confirmed cases, suspected cases, patients with fever, and close contacts from abroad and other provinces. All indoor public venues, including clubhouses and party rooms in apartment complexes, will remain closed.

Beijing: China’s capital Beijing reported a decline in newly confirmed cases of coronavirus on Thursday as the city continued to press stricter measures to contain a new outbreak.

A total of 158 people have been confirmed as infected since the new outbreak was detected last week at the Xinfad wholesale market, a Beijing city government spokesman said. Close contacts were being traced to locate all possible cases as quickly as possible amid strengthened testing and other prevention and control measures, Hu Hejian said on Thursday.

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.

Read |Flights canceled as Beijing's new virus outbreak raises concerns

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

Beijing reported 21 cases on Thursday, down from 31 on Wednesday. The national total of 28 new cases included four brought by Chinese travelers from outside the country and three in the city of Tianjin and Hebei province, both of which border Beijing.

No new deaths were reported, leaving the total number of fatalities at 4,634 amid 83,293 cases recorded since the virus was first detected in the central city of Wuhan late last year.

Read |11 Beijing markets closed, dozens queue for tests

Meanwhile, US 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.

"Pompeo stressed the need for full transparency and information sharing to combat the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and prevent future outbreaks,” the State Department said in a statement.

(AP)