A fresh COVID-19 cluster has forced Chinese authorities to impose a strict lockdown in a province near the capital Beijing. Officials warn the coronavirus outbreak remains “severe and complicated.”
Chinese health officials said on Sunday that Anxin county — about 150 kilometers (90 miles) from Beijing — will be “fully enclosed and controlled,” — the same strict measures imposed at the height of the pandemic in the city of Wuhan earlier this year.
Only one person from each family will be allowed to go out once a day to purchase necessities such as food and medicine, the county’s epidemic prevention task force said in a statement.
The move comes after another 14 cases of the virus were reported in the past 24 hours in Beijing, taking the total number of cases in the city of over 20 million to 311.
After China appeared to have largely brought the virus under control, hundreds have been infected in Beijing and cases have emerged in neighboring Hebei province in recent weeks.