Half a million Chinese people have been placed under harsh lockdown measures amid fears of a new coronavirus spike.

The emergency measures covering large parts of Hebei province, around 80 miles from capital city Beijing, come as health bosses admit the situation is “extremely severe”.

Affected communities in the area will be “fully enclosed and controlled” under the same conditions imposed on Wuhan at the height of the crisis, The Sun reports.

Only one person from each household will be allowed to leave home once a day, and only to buy food and medicine.

State officials have been ordered to snoop on neighbours and call the police if they spot anyone breaking the rules.

China was thought to have brought coronavirus under control after the outbreak at the start of the year, but hundreds of new cases have appeared in Beijing and Hebei province in the last few weeks.

It has caused Chinese health experts to warn the country is at “very high risk” of a deadly second wave of the virus.

The outbreak in Hebei province is linked to a food market which is over 20 times bigger than the Wuhan wet market where the global Covid-19 pandemic originated.

Worldwide coronavirus cases have now passed 10million, according to new research published yesterday.

The global death toll from the pandemic has topped 500,000, it has been announced.

Analysis from John Hopkins University confirmed the US had the highest number of confirmed cases with more than a quarter of all patients worldwide, or 2.5m.

Brazil has the second-highest number, with more than 1.3m testing positive.

The UK has the fifth-highest number worldwide according to the university, with 311,739.

It comes amid suggestions the UK’s first local lockdown could be imposed in Leicester after a surge in coronavirus cases in the city.

Senior government sources said people could be ordered back indoors “within days,” The Sunday Times reports.

It comes after 658 cases of Covid-19 were recorded in the last two weeks to June 16.

Emergency crisis plans have been put into place after dozens of people were admitted to hospital.

Health secretary Matt Hancock has reportedly been examining legal aspects of the shutdown and is said to be “considering all options”.