Brussels—A raft of European Union nations reopened their borders to fellow Europeans on Monday after months of coronavirus curbs, but China was battling a new outbreak that has stoked fears of a second wave.
All indoor sports and entertainment venues were shut down in China's capital on Monday as authorities raced to contain a coronavirus outbreak linked to a wholesale food market, with some neighborhoods placed under complete lockdown.
Tens of thousands of people were also targeted in a massive test and trace programme, as the number of cases from the new Beijing cluster increased to 79.
The outbreak came after China had largely brought the virus under control following its emergence in a central Chinese city late last year, highlighting the enduring dangers for the rest of the world about a second wave of the pandemic.
Indoor sports and entertainment venues across Beijing have been ordered to close, the municipal party committee said at a press conference Monday.
City official Xu Ying told reporters that all areas must "strengthen public space disinfection and temporarily close sports and recreation indoor facilities", as well as increasing temperature checks and forbidding non-residents from entering communities.
Earlier on Monday health officials reported 49 new coronavirus cases nationwide, including 36 more in Beijing where a cluster linked to the Xinfadi market in the south of the city has fuelled fears of a second wave of infections.
Authorities have locked down 21 housing estates near Xinfadi and another market, Yuquandong in the capital's northwestern Haidian district, where cases linked to the Xinfadi cluster have also been discovered.
Officials said that they were in the process of testing more than 90,000 people living in the locked-down communities for the virus.
They said 200,000 people had visited the Xinfadi market since May 30, and they were trying to trace and test all of them, including going door-to-door.
Over 8,000 workers from the market have been tested and sent to centralised quarantine facilities.
As caseloads have declined in recent weeks across many parts of Europe, governments have been keen to ease painful lockdowns that have saved lives but devastated economies and wearied confined populations.
Belgium, France, Germany, Greece and Ukraine were among those lifting border restrictions on Monday, while shops and outdoor attractions in England were set to welcome their first customers since March and in Paris cafes and restaurants were allowed to fully reopen.
"We're desperate about tourists, we need them and we want them. If we don't have the people, how will we survive," says Michalis Drosos, who works in a souvenir shop in Fira, capital of the Greek island of Santorini.
However, the pandemic is gathering pace in Latin America, and Iran and India have reported worrying increases in deaths and infections — adding to concern over challenges the world will face in the long fight against COVID-19.
China, where the virus emerged late last year, was the first country to implement extreme restrictions on movement early this year, forcing local transmission down to near-zero as the crisis hammered the rest of the world.
More than 430,000 people worldwide have died from COVID-19, nearly halfway through a year in which countless lives have been upended and the global economy ravaged by the crisis.
The United States — by far the hardest-hit country with more than 115,700 recorded fatalities — on Sunday reported its lowest 24-hour death toll since its infection rate peaked in mid-April.
President Donald Trump's administration has noted that some states have seen new flare-ups, but insists there will be no shutdown of the economy even if a new wave arises.
But stock markets tumbled again on Monday on fears that an upsurge of infections could put the brakes on the easing of lockdowns and dash hopes of economic recovery.
The Middle East's worst-hit country, Iran, reported an uptick on Sunday, recording more than 100 new virus deaths in a single day for the first time in two months.
Surging infections in India have highlighted the precarious state of its healthcare system, and more than 1,000 new cases are being reported each day in the capital alone.
Mortuaries in New Delhi are overflowing with bodies and cemeteries and crematorium staff say they cannot keep up with the backlog of victims.
There have also been two new outbreaks in Rome, with 109 infections including five deaths diagnosed at a hospital and 15 cases detected at a building inhabited by squatters.
"It means the virus hasn't lost its infectiousness, it isn't weakening… we shouldn't let down our guard," World Health Organization deputy director Ranieri Guerra told journalists.
"Such micro-outbreaks were inevitable, but they are limited in time and space. And today we have the tools to intercept them and confine them."
Despite fears over fresh clusters, many countries are making moves towards semi-normality.
In Paris, restaurant and cafe owners were cheering after the government said they could once again open their dining rooms, three months after being shut to blunt the coronavirus outbreak.
Until now, restaurants in and around the capital could only serve clients on outdoor terraces, even though eateries in the rest of the country opened fully earlier this month.
"It's going to be a party," Stephane Manigold, owner of four Paris restaurants, including the two-starred Maison Rostang, told AFP.
In England, thousands of non-essential retailers such as bookshops and electronics outlets will be welcoming their first customers since halting in-store business in late March.
Drive-in cinemas, safari parks, and the outdoor parts of zoos will also be able to reopen, while places of worship are also set to swing open their doors again for individual prayer.
Egypt says it will open its doors for tourists to beach resorts in July, and Peru's Machu Picchu will also reopen next month, although it will sharply reduce the number of daily visitors.
And top-level football continues its return in Europe with the English Premier League making its long-awaited comeback this week, days after Spain's La Liga.