Coronavirus Back with a Vengeance? Experts Fear Latest Beijing Outbreak

Just when you thought that 2020 wasn’t going to get any wilder, it looks as though coronavirus is setting the stage for a major comeback.

The idea of a second wave of COVID-19 has been prevalent in the global medical community for some time, and with good reason:  Historically speaking, viral pandemics have a habit of worsening during their first reverberation.  This is due to a number of factors, not the least of which has to do with humanity’s comfort levels rising as an illness’s first wave diminishes.

In the case of the highly contagious coronavirus strain we’re dealing with today, not only are we seeing much of the world begin to saunter toward normalcy, but we’re now dealing another outbreak entirely…this time in one of the world’s most populous places.

China raised its emergency warning to its second-highest level and canceled more than 60% of the flights to Beijing on Wednesday amid a new coronavirus outbreak in the capital. It was a sharp pullback for the nation that declared victory over COVID-19 in March and a message to the rest of the world about how tenacious the virus really is.

New infections spiked in India, Iran and U.S. states including Florida, Texas and Arizona as authorities struggled to balance restarting economic activity without accelerating the pandemic.

Chinese authorities are at least giving the impression that they are taking this seriously.

“This has truly rung an alarm bell for us,” Party Secretary Cai Qi told a meeting of Beijing’s Communist Party Standing Committee.

After a push that began June 14, the city expects to have tested 700,000 people by the end of the day, said Zhang Qiang, a Beijing party official. About half of them were workers from the city’s food markets, nearby residents and close contacts.

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.

New statistical models in the United States show the possibility of a crescendo of resurgence stateside in September, but over 200,000 death possible from COVID-19 by the time that Halloween rolls around.