China has reported its highest daily number of new coronavirus cases in months with parts of Beijing still under lockdown, offering a second wave warning to the rest of the world as the pandemic rages in South America, AFP reported.

Of the 57 new cases logged by Chinese authorities, 36 were domestic infections in the capital, where a large wholesale food market at the centre of the outbreak has been closed and nearby housing estates put under lockdown.

“People are scared,” a fruit and vegetable trader at another local market in central Beijing told AFP.

“The meat sellers have had to close. This disease is really scary,” said the man surnamed Sun, adding there were fewer customers than normal.