‘Serious problem’: China, US battle threat of new wave of Covid-19 cases

On Saturday, China reported the highest number of new coronavirus cases in four days, driven by a Covid-19 resurgence in capital city Beijing.

A spurt in new patients in China and unabated rise in infections in the United States has worried people, signalling at a new wave of Covid-19 cases in both countries.

A woman has her body temperature checked as she arrives for a nucleic acid test during a government-organized visit to a testing site in Beijing, China.(REUTERS)

On Saturday, China reported the highest number of new coronavirus cases in four days, driven by a Covid-19 resurgence in capital city Beijing.

China’s health commission reported 21 new confirmed infections in mainland China on Friday, 13 more from the previois day and the highest since Monday.

In Beijing, 17 new confirmed cases were reported, up from 11 a day earlier and the most since June 20. Beijing reported its first case in the current outbreak on June 11 which stemmed from a sprawling wholesale food centre in the southwest of the capital. Nearly 300 people in the city of more than 20 million have contracted the virus.

Mainland China reported four new so-called imported cases on Friday, infections linked to travellers arriving from abroad. China’s Covid-19 tally now stands at 83,483 with death toll stood at 4,634, unchanged since mid-May.

United States

In the US, a top public health official has said that the actual number of cumulative Covid-19 infections in the country could be around 10 times the reported number.

“We are facing a serious problem in certain areas,” leading US immunologist Anthony Fauci said at the first briefing in two months by the White House’s Coronavirus Task Force.

“The only way we’re going to end it is by ending it together,” he said of the outbreak.

The US currently leads the global tally with over 2.5 million Covid-19 cases and is reporting over 30,000 cases daily. With nearly 125,000 lives lost, it has by far the highest confirmed Covid-19 death toll in the world. A resurgence in coronavirus cases has put brakes on reopening two of the country’s largest states - Texas and Florida.

(With inputs from agencies)