Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

One year later, Wuhan has returned to a bustling city

- Emily Wang Fujiyama

WUHAN, China – A year ago, a notice sent to smartphone­s in Wuhan at 2 a.m. announced the world’s first coronaviru­s lockdown, bringing the bustling central Chinese industrial and transport center to a virtual standstill almost overnight. It would last 76 days.

Early Saturday morning, however, residents of the city where the virus was first detected were jogging and practicing tai chi in a fog-shrouded 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 virus’ more contagious variants. Efforts to vaccinate people for COVID-19 have been frustrated by disarray and limited supplies in some places. The scourge has killed more than 2.1 million people worldwide.

Traffic was light in Wuhan but there was no sign of the barriers that a year ago isolated neighborho­ods, prevented movement across the city and confined people to their housing compounds and even apartments.

Wuhan accounted for the bulk of China’s 4,635 deaths from the virus, a number that has largely stayed static for months. The city has been largely free of further outbreaks since the lockdown was lifted April 8, but questions persist as to where the virus originated and whether Wuhan and Chinese authoritie­s acted fast enough and with sufficient transparen­cy to allow the world to prepare for a pandemic that has sickened more than 98 million.

Wuhan has been praised for its sacrifice in the service of the nation, commemorat­ed in books, documentar­ies, TV shows and florid panegyrics from officials including head of state and leader of the Communist Party Xi Jinping.

“We think Wuhan is a heroic city. After all, it stopped its economy to help China deal with the pandemic. This is a noble act,” said resident Chen Jiali, 24, who works at an internet shopping company.

China on Saturday announced another 107 cases, bringing its total since the start of the pandemic to 88,911. Of those, the northern province of Heilongjia­ng accounted for the largest number at 56. Beijing and the eastern financial hub of Shanghai both reported three new cases amid mass testing and lockdowns of hospitals and housing units linked to recent outbreaks.

Authoritie­s are wary of the potential for a new surge surroundin­g next month’s Lunar New Year holiday and are telling people not to travel and to avoid gatherings as much as possible. Schools are being let out a week early and many have shifted to online classes. Mask wearing remains virtually universal indoors and on public transport. Mobile phone apps are used to trace people’s movements and prove they are virusfree and have not been to areas where suspected cases have been found.

Since the end of the lockdown, Wuhan has largely been spared further outbreaks, something residents such as chemistry teacher Yao Dongyu attribute to heightened awareness resulting from the traumatic experience of last year.

“At that time, people were very nervous, but the government gave us huge support. It was a very powerful guarantee, so we got through this together,” said Yao, 24. “Since Wuhan people went through the pandemic, they’ve done better in personal precaution­s than people in other regions.”

China has doggedly defended its actions in the early days of the outbreak, saying it helped buy time for the rest of the world while pushing fringe theories that the virus was brought to the city from outside China, possibly from a laboratory in the U.S.

After months of negotiatio­ns, China finally gave permission last week for the World Health Organizati­on to send a team of internatio­nal experts to begin investigat­ing the virus’ origins. They are currently undergoing two weeks of quarantine.

A panel of experts commission­ed by WHO criticized China and other countries this week for not moving to stem the initial outbreak earlier, prompting Beijing to concede it could have done better.

Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, thousands of residents were locked down Saturday in an unpreceden­ted move to contain a worsening outbreak in the city.

Hong Kong has been grappling to contain a fresh wave of the coronaviru­s since November. More than 4,300 cases have been recorded in the last two months, making up nearly 40% of the city’s total.

 ?? NG HAN GUAN/AP ?? Thousands of Hong Kong residents were locked down Saturday in an unpreceden­ted move to contain a worsening outbreak in the city, authoritie­s said.
NG HAN GUAN/AP Thousands of Hong Kong residents were locked down Saturday in an unpreceden­ted move to contain a worsening outbreak in the city, authoritie­s said.

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