Shanghai | China's capital says a new outbreak of coronavirus cases originating in a fresh food market is under control but Beijing remains in semi-lockdown with millions barred from leaving the city, schools closed and the rest of the country on alert for a wider contagion.

The biggest spike of infections in China, one of the first places to get the pandemic under control, has worried scientists in Australia and other countries coming out of lockdown because it highlights that even the most heavy-handed controls cannot prevent further outbreaks.