Transport services returning to normal in Wuhan

Capital of Hubei province begins to wake from epidemic control measures

After being apart for more than two months, Xia Fan finally saw her boyfriend at 2 am on Saturday at Wuchang Railway Station in Wuhan — the city that had been in a lockdown since Jan 23 due to the novel coronavirus outbreak.

“He told me not to come as it’s too early in the morning, but I spent the last two months waiting for his return from Shiyan. I could not bear one more second,” said the 25-year-old nurse from Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University.

“The moment I saw him, I felt so reassured. With more people and energy injected into the city, I believe Wuhan will recover soon,” she said.

Over 260 inbound trains broke the two-month silence of the 17 train stations in Wuhan on Saturday — the first day of the country’s major rail transportation hub reopen to passengers after the lockdown, bringing more than 60,000 people back to the city, according to China Railway Wuhan Group.

Though the number of trains arriving in Wuhan stands at only one fourth of the usual number, the reopening of the stations allows people to come back through the country’s vast railway network, the company said, adding that there will be an increasing number of inbound trains to take back more people.

From April 8, the stations in the city will begin their outbound train service as well, it added.

Wuhan is also going to restart civil aviation services as the virus outbreak continues to subdue.

From April 8, Wuhan Tianhe International Airport will resume all passenger and cargo flights on domestic air routes except to and from Beijing, while other airports across the province have already operated flights since Sunday, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

Data from Qunar, an online travel service provider, showed that there are more than 30 domestic routes linking the cities of Yichang, Xiangyang, Enshi, and Shiyan in Hubei, and almost all of the tickets for flights on Sunday were sold out.

There are not many remaining tickets for the flights departing from Wuhan on April 8 either, which are all full-price economy class, it added.

With Wuhan lifting its travel restrictions in an orderly manner, its cargo and logistics transportation is also resuming. On Saturday, a China-Europe freight train carrying 50 cargo containers left Wujiashan Railway Container Station in Wuhan en route to Central Europe for the first time since the outbreak began.

Nearly 90 percent of all goods aboard were produced locally in Wuhan, including 166.4 metric tons of medical supplies such as medical fabrics, as well as auto parts, electronics and telecommunication cables, according to China State Railway Group.

The train is expected to arrive in the German city of Duisburg in about 15 days. The goods will then be transported to Germany, France, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland for pandemic control and construction projects.

The normalization of the ChinaEurope freight service serves as evidence that the city’s logistics and production is gradually recovering, and will become a strong backstop for commerce and trade, said Tu Shanfeng, board chairman of Wuhan Port and Shipping Development Group.

He added that more freight trains ferrying goods between the two regions will be in place in the coming days.

Wuhan, the city hit hardest by the novel coronavirus pneumonia outbreak on the Chinese mainland, has been gearing up for the restoration of normalcy after businesses and public transport in the city were suspended around two months ago for epidemic control.

Some shopping malls and marketplaces in Hubei’s provincial capital will resume business Monday, while six metro lines reopened on Saturday. However, facilities like cinemas, bookstores, pubs, gyms and training institutions are still not allowed to operate, and only takeout services are permitted for restaurants, according to city authorities.

Luo Fei, deputy general manager of the Wushang Plaza Shopping Center, said all its public areas have been disinfected regularly since March 23 to prepare for its reopening.

Customers will be asked to wear face masks, have their temperatures checked and show their health QR codes before entering the shopping center, Luo said, adding that all the managers, sales and security personnel and sanitation workers will also be subject to regular temperriage ature checks, and anyone with cough or fever symptoms will not be allowed to work.

Wuhan has reported just one newly confirmed case of novel coronavirus pneumonia since March 18. Liu Dongru, deputy head of the provincial Health Commission, told a news conference on Friday that the city has had its coronavirus risk evaluation downgraded from “high risk” to “medium risk.”

According to the risk criteria definitions in a guideline issued by China’s State Council, cities, counties and districts with no newly confirmed cases in the previous 14 days are categorized as low-risk areas; those with fewer than 50 cases or those with over 50 but without a concentrated outbreak are classified as medium-risk areas; and those with over 50 cases and a concentrated outbreak are classified as highrisk areas.

On Saturday, Wuhan residents could travel by subway again. Before entering subway stations, they are required to scan QR codes by using widely available smartphone apps through which they must register by their real names so that their travel histories can be traced. As they get off the train, passengers have to scan the QR code posted in the caragain in order to track which one they took.

All the measures are designed to make it easy to contact passengers in case infections are found on the subway network, the metro system authorities said.

Infrared thermometers have been installed in security-check areas to take passengers’ temperatures. Those who have normal temperatures are allowed in, while those with fevers are subject to further temperature checks or quarantine.

Security personnel are being stationed on every train to guide passengers and provide them with needed services.

Jin Jing, head of the Hongshan Square Station, said all public areas and facilities in the station were thoroughly cleaned and disinfected before the subway resumed operation.

The station was ready to regain its former hustle and bustle after taking additional measures to protect passengers’ safety, Jin said.

A passenger surnamed Chen, who works for a local hospital, said that when he took the subway and saw the passenger flow, he felt the city had awakened.

The city’s subway system recorded some 183,200 trips on Saturday, according to the subway operating company, about 5 percent of the number this time last year.