New infections spiked in India, Iran, and U.S. states as authorities struggled to balance restarting economic activity without accelerating the spread of the pandemic.
European nations, which embarked on a widescale reopening this week, looked on with trepidation as the Americas struggled mightily to contain the first wave of the pandemic and Asian nations like China and South Korea reported new outbreaks, giving rise to fears of a second wave.
In China, officials described the situation in Beijing as “extremely grave.”
“This has truly rung an alarm bell for us,” Party Secretary Cai Qi told a meeting of Beijing’s Communist Party Standing Committee.
The party’s Global Times said 1,255 flights to and from the capital’s two major airports were scrapped by Wednesday morning, about two-thirds of those scheduled. Beijing Capital Airport is traditionally the world’s second busiest in passenger capacity.
Since the CCP virus emerged in China late last year and spread worldwide, there have been more than 8.1 million confirmed cases and at least 443,000 deaths, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University. Experts say the true toll is much higher, due to the many who died without being tested and other factors.
Canada and the United States, meanwhile, decided to extend to July 21 a deal to keep their border closed to nonessential travel, with many Canadians fearing cases arriving from the United States.
“This is a decision that will protect people on both sides of the border as we continue to fight COVID-19,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.
As the United States struggles with the first wave of the CCP virus, other countries where it was widely thought to be under control faced disturbing developments.
In South Korea, authorities reported 43 new cases amid increased public activity. Authorities said 25 of them came from the Seoul metropolitan area, where hundreds of infections have been linked to nightclubs, church gatherings, e-commerce workers, and door-to-door salespeople. Twelve of the new cases were linked to international arrivals.
Not long after declaring itself CCP virus-free, New Zealand is dealing with a reemergence of the CCP virus. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern assigned a top military leader to oversee the border quarantines after what she described as an “unacceptable failure” by health officials.
They had allowed two New Zealand citizens who had recently returned from London to leave quarantine before being tested to see a dying relative. After the women tested positive, New Zealand began tracing their potential contacts to ensure the CCP virus is contained.
Their cases raised the specter that international air travel could ignite a new surge of the CCP virus just as countries are reopening airports to boost their devastated tourism industries.
The flight cancellations in China were among a number of travel limits placed around the capital. Beijing had essentially eradicated local transmissions until recent days, with 137 new cases since last week.
On Wednesday, the city of 20 million people raised its threat level from 3 to 2, leading to the cancellation of classes, suspended reopenings, and stronger requirements for social distancing. China had relaxed many CCP virus controls after the Communist Party declared victory over the CCP virus in March.
India added more than 2,000 deaths to its tally, after Delhi and Maharashtra states included 1,672 previously unreported fatalities. India has been reporting some 10,000 new infections and more than 300 deaths each day for the last two weeks, with a death toll of 11,903.
In Europe, which has seen over 184,000 CCP virus-related deaths, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced that a ceremony will be held on July 16 to honor the country’s more than 27,000 dead.
Denmark’s health minister urged anyone who joined a large protest against racial injustice on June 7 to be tested “whether you have symptoms or not” after one person in the crowd tested positive.
“As long as we have the virus in Europe and in Denmark, it will flare-up. We are dealing with a very, very contagious disease,” said Health Minister Magnus Heunicke.
