WUHAN, China (AP) – A year ago, a message sent to smartphones in Wuhan at 2 AM announced the world’s first coronavirus blocking that would last 76 days.
Early Saturday morning, residents of the central Chinese city where the virus was first discovered were jogging and practicing tai chi in a fog-covered park beside the mighty Yangtze River.
Life has largely returned to normal in the city of 11 million, even as the rest of the world grapples with the spread of the more contagious variants of the virus. Attempts to vaccinate people against COVID-19 have been frustrated with disorder and limited supplies in some places. The plague has killed more than 2 million people worldwide.
Traffic was light in Wuhan, but there was no sign of the barriers that a year ago prevented isolated neighborhoods from moving around the city and trapping people in their housing complexes and even apartments.
Wuhan was responsible for most of the 4,635 deaths in China from COVID-19, a number that has remained largely stable for months. The city has been largely free of further outbreaks since the lockdown was lifted on April 8, but questions remain about where the virus originated and whether Wuhan and the Chinese authorities acted quickly and with sufficient transparency to the world. enable oneself to prepare for a pandemic that has sickened more than 98 million.
China announced a further 107 cases on Saturday, bringing the total to 88,911. Of these, the northern province of Heilongjiang was the largest with 56. Beijing and Shanghai’s Eastern Financial Center both reported three new cases amid massive testing and closures of hospitals and housing units in connection with recent outbreaks.
Authorities are wary of another wave around next month’s Chinese New Year holiday, telling people not to travel and avoid gatherings as much as possible. Schools are rented out a week earlier and many have already switched to online classes. Wearing a mask remains almost universal indoors and on public transport. Mobile phone apps are used to track people’s movements and prove that they are both virus-free and have not been in areas where suspected cases have been found.
Wuhan is hailed for its sacrifice in the service of the nation, turning it into a kind of Stalingrad in the Chinese war on the virus, commemorated in books, documentaries, TV shows and flowery accolades from officials including the head of state and the leader of the communists . Party Xi Jinping.
China stubbornly defended its actions in the early days of the outbreak, saying it helped save time for the rest of the world, while propagating theories that the virus had been brought to the city from outside of China, possibly from a lab in the U.S.
Last week, after months of negotiations, China finally gave the World Health Organization permission to send a team of international experts to investigate the origin of the virus. They are currently under quarantine for two weeks.
A panel of experts commissioned by the WHO this week criticized China and other countries for not having started earlier to stop the initial outbreak, prompting Beijing to admit it could have been better.
Meanwhile, in Hong Kong in southern China, thousands of residents were imprisoned on Saturday in an unprecedented move to stem an worsening outbreak in the city.
Hong Kong has been struggling to contain a new wave of the coronavirus since November. More than 4,300 cases have been registered in the past two months, accounting for almost 40% of the city total.
Authorities said in a statement that an area of 16 buildings in the working-class Yau Tsim Mong district will be closed until all residents have been tested.