Covid-19 outbreaks in New Zealand and China highlight stark choices

To stay coronavirus free, countries face unsustainable social and economic losses

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Beijing and New Zealand had both declared themselves Covid-19-free by mid-June, life returning to an enviable normality of schools and shops, work and human contact. It didn't last long.

Last week, parts of the Chinese capital went back on a wartime" footing after a cluster of cases emerged linked to the city's biggest wholesale food market. Movement restrictions are back and residents have already been warned against leaving the city. Schools are closed.