China puts half a million people in lockdown as Beijing fights new cluster

People wearing masks as they wait in line to undergo coronavirus swab tests at a testing station in Beijing on Sunday (June 28). Beijing partially lifted a week-long lockdown imposed in the Chinese capital to head off a feared second wave of coronavirus infections after three million samples were taken in two weeks, officials said. Dozens of residential compounds across the city were shut down, with authorities rolling out a mass testing campaign to root out any remaining cases. - AFP

Beijing, June 28 (AFP): China imposed a strict lockdown on nearly half a million people in a province surrounding the capital to contain a fresh coronavirus cluster on Sunday (June 28), as authorities warned the outbreak was still "severe and complicated."

After China largely brought the virus under control, hundreds have been infected in Beijing and cases have emerged in neighbouring Hebei province in recent weeks.