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Wuhan – A year ago, a message sent to cell phones in Wuhan at 2:00 am announced the world’s first coronavirus blockage, bringing China’s bustling industrial and transportation hub to almost overnight. came to a standstill. It would take 76 days.
This morning, however, residents of the city where the virus was first discovered ran tai chi in a fog-covered park on the banks of the Yangtze River.
Life has largely returned to normal in this city of 11 million people, while the rest of the world struggles to stop the spread of more contagious varieties of the virus. In some places, vaccination campaigns for COVID-19 were thwarted by chaos and limited supplies. The pandemic has claimed the lives of more than two million people around the world.
Traffic was fluid in Wuhan, where there was no trace of the barriers that a year ago prevented isolated neighborhoods, prevented movement through the city, and confined residents to their residential complexes and even their homes.
Wuhan registered the majority of the 4,635 COVID-19 deaths officially recorded in China, a figure that has remained unchanged for months. The city has had no outbreaks since the quarantine ended on April 8, but questions remain about where the virus originated and whether the Chinese and Wuhan authorities acted quickly and with sufficient transparency to enable the world to prepare for a virus that has contracted at least 98 million people.
Wuhan was praised for its sacrifice in the service of the nation, becoming a kind of Stalingrad in the Chinese war on the virus, commemorated in books, documentaries, television shows and flowery praises by officials including the president and leader of the Communist Party Xi Jinping .
“We believe Wuhan is a heroic city. After all, it paralyzed its economy to help China deal with the pandemic. This is a noble act, ”said Chen Jiali, a 24-year-old resident who works for an online trading company.
China announced 107 new infections on Saturday, bringing the total since the start of the pandemic to 88,911. Of these, 56 were registered in Heilongjiang Province, in the north of the country. The capital Beijing and Shanghai, the financial hub in the east, confirmed three new infections, each amid massive testing campaigns and quarantines in hospitals and residential areas linked to recent outbreaks.
The authorities are alert to a possible recovery in cases around the Lunar New Year holiday next month and are asking the population to avoid travel and crowds as much as possible.
Schools are closing a week ahead of schedule and many have already opted for online classes. The use of masks is still mandatory indoors and on public transport. Mobile apps are used to track people’s movements and show they don’t have the virus and aren’t in outbreak areas.