Restaurants in China reopen after nearly two months

Daily life is slowly returning to normal in China, with restaurants beginning to reopen after being forced to shut for nearly two months due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Across the country many restaurants opened their doors again over the weekend, and public spaces including a popular section of the Great Wall as well as the Beijing Zoo came back to life - albeit with limited capacity.

Wang Lifang, manager of Xibei restaurant in Beijing, said employees were undergoing rigorous safety checks before starting work and they were disinfecting surfaces every two hours in order to stop any spread of the virus.

While the domestic situation has calmed, China is sparing no effort in shielding itself from the threats of outbreaks in other countries.

All individuals arriving in China's capital from overseas must take a COVID-19 test in addition to being quarantined starting Wednesday, the Beijing municipal government has announced.

Most patients who contract the new coronavirus develop only mild symptoms and recover after about two weeks, but the virus is highly contagious and can be spread by those with no visible symptoms.

For older adults and people with underlying health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.

More than 400,000 people worldwide have been infected and over 18,600 have died, according to a running count kept by Johns Hopkins University.

More than 107,000 people have recovered.