The new coronavirus outbreak that has infected 256 people in Beijing since early June is "under control", officials in the Chinese capital said Wednesday, but fears still remain over the risk of community transmission.

Authorities have raced to contain the outbreak linked to the largest wholesale food market in Beijing after the first case was announced on June 11, leading to a partial lockdown of the city.

"The Beijing epidemic directly linked to Xinfadi (market) is basically under control, but at the same time we have discovered household and workplace cluster infections and cases of community transmission," said Beijing municipal government spokesman Xu Hejian at a briefing.

"The prevention and control situation remains complicated, we cannot lower our guard in the slightest."

Officials found that 253 out of 256 Beijing cases were linked to Xinfadi in the south of the city, while contact tracing for the remaining three was still ongoing.

The city announced seven new cases on Wednesday, with the rate of infection slowing since the start of this week.

"This sends a very positive signal, and proves that the prevention and control measures taken lately, as well as lockdown of residential compounds, are effective," said Lei Haichao, head of the Beijing health commission.

"The combination of fever clinics, discovering (cases) from close contacts, and mass nucleic acid testing have played an important role in early detection."

The city increased its daily nucleic acid sample testing capacity to 300,000 from 100,000 per day in early June, said Lei, adding that 137 cases -- just over half -- were found through screening.

Nearly three million people have been tested.

Many cases have been low-income migrant workers at Xinfadi and nearby restaurants. The market and dozens of residential compounds have been under lockdown since June 13.

Beijing has mass-tested wholesale market workers, restaurant workers, residents of medium and high-risk neighbourhoods and delivery couriers over the past week.

The cities of Wuhan, where the initial COVID outbreak emerged late last year, and Mudanjiang have also seen similar mass testing campaigns to root out undiscovered asymptomatic cases.

Experts warned that smaller, recurrent outbreaks were likely in future.

"There may be an increase in cases in the winter or next spring, but I don't think the outbreak will be as big as the first wave of the pandemic," said Zhong Nanshan, a leading respiratory expert who spearheaded China's response to the SARS pandemic, on Wednesday.

Virus death toll nears half a million as cases surge in US, Latin America
Washington (AFP) June 24, 2020 - Coronavirus cases are surging across large parts of the United States and in Latin America, according to experts and figures, highlighting how far the world remains from stopping the pandemic as the global death toll neared half a million on Wednesday.

Six months into a crisis that has devastated the global economy, the International Monetary Fund was set to issue its latest growth forecasts later Wednesday.

The World Trade Organization already warned on Tuesday that the outlook for the world economy over the next two years remains "highly uncertain", and that global trade is expected to see a huge coronavirus-driven plunge in the second quarter.

The number of deaths worldwide from the outbreak has surged past 477,000, a doubling of the toll in less than two months, according to an AFP tally on Wednesday.

China, where the virus was first detected in the city of Wuhan in December, said a new outbreak that has infected 256 people in Beijing since early June is "under control", but fears remain over the risk of community transmission.

Experts warned that small, recurrent outbreaks of the virus were likely in future.

"There may be an increase in cases in the winter or next spring, but I don't think the outbreak will be as big as the first wave of the pandemic," Zhong Nanshan, a leading Chinese respiratory expert, said on Wednesday

Europe remains the worst-hit region with over 194,000 dead from more than 2.5 million cases.

The continent has been loosening travel restrictions following a brutal few months when it was the epicentre of the pandemic.

Russia Wednesday held grand World War II commemorations, presided over by President Vladimir Putin, which were postponed from the traditional date of May 9 due to the outbreak.

The Kremlin said safety precautions were being taken in the lead-up to the parade -- but participants were not wearing masks and there is still a ban on mass gatherings in Moscow.

- 'Real risk' -

Just a day after the biggest lifting of the restrictions yet in England, medical experts on Wednesday warned the British government to prepare for the "real risk" of a second wave.

Germany, the first major EU nation to begin easing lockdown measures, on Tuesday reimposed them on more than 600,000 people following a cluster of infections at a slaughterhouse.

And world men's tennis number one Novak Djokovic tested positive after an exhibition tournament in the Balkans, drawing widespread condemnation for organising the event.

Tennis was hoping to follow team sports like football back into arenas and stadiums, but the positive tests of Djokovic and three others have dampened its prospects.

The United States has recorded more deaths than any other nation, with more than 121,000 from over 2.3 million cases.

White House advisor Anthony Fauci warned the next two weeks would be "critical to our ability to address... surgings" in Florida, Texas and other states.

However President Donald Trump, whose handling of the crisis has been widely criticised as erratic, is determined to fast-track efforts to restore normality.

He continued to stoke controversy on Tuesday, doubling down on weekend comments he wanted to slow testing because so many confirmed infections made the United States look bad.

"I don't kid," Trump said, after a White House official described his initial comments as just a joke.

With the parts of the United States unable to contain the pandemic, the European Union was considering blocking US travellers as it reopens its borders to tourism, the New York Times reported.

- 'Little flu' -

Latin America has been one of the world's worst hotspots for weeks, and the number of deaths there and in the Caribbean surpassed 100,000, according to an AFP tally.

Brazil, where President Jair Bolsonaro has flouted containment measures and described the virus as a "little flu", is officially the worst-hit country after the United States.

More than 52,000 people are confirmed to have died of the virus in Brazil, as a federal judge ordered Bolsonaro to wear a face mask in public.

"The president has a constitutional obligation to follow the laws in force in the country, as well as to promote the general welfare of the people," the judge wrote.

Meanwhile, an Iranian official called for mask-wearing to be made compulsory as the country on Wednesday reported its highest daily coronavirus death toll in more than two-and-a-half months.

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Global health emergencies: A rarely used call to action
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