China to lift lockdown on Wuhan, ground zero of coronavirus pandemic
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China to lift lockdown on Wuhan, ground zero
of coronavirus pandemic
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China has announced it'll lift the lockdown on Wuhan, the town at the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, on April 8, marking a big milestone in its battle against the deadly outbreak.
The date comes quite two months after the town was first sealed from the surface world, in an unprecedented bid to contain the fast spreading virus.
Similar lockdown measures are going to be lifted Wednesday for other cities in Hubei province, of which Wuhan is that the capital, provincial authorities announced Tuesday.
The easing of travel restrictions follows a big reduction in new infections in Hubei, with new cases dropping to zero for five consecutive days from Saint Joseph -- down from thousands of daily new cases at the peak of the epidemic in February. On Tuesday, the province reported one new case in Wuhan, a doctor at the Hubei General Hospital.
Staff individuals line up as they plan
to sanitize Wuhan Railroad Station on
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The province has accounted for the bulk of infections and deaths in China, with 67,801 cases and three ,160 fatalities reported as of Monday.
In a precursor to the kinds of measures that might later be introduced throughout the planet , Wuhan, a city of some 11 million people, was placed under state-imposed lockdown on January 23, with all flights, trains and buses canceled and highways entrances blocked. Other cities in Hubei province soon followed suit, adopting similar restrictions.
The sweeping measures, which have affected quite 60 million Hubei residents, are heralded in China as having allowed the country to show a corner in its fight against the outbreak.
During a major show of confidence, Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Wuhan on March 10, three months after the outbreak was first detected within the city.
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| Chinese President Xi Jinping waves to occupants who are isolated at home on March 10 |
But while the restrictions have slowed the spread of the virus, they did not contain it. within the past week, there has been on the brink of zero new local cases reported in China, with the main target shifting instead to stopping Covid-19 cases from being imported from overseas.
Globally, the entire caseload has now passed 380,000, with quite 16,500 deaths, consistent with figures compiled by Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking figures from the planet Health Organization and extra sources.
Easing restrictions
Starting from Wednesday, people in Hubei, apart from Wuhan, are going to be allowed to go away the province if they need a green QR code on their mobile phones, the Hubei provincial government said during a notice on Weibo, China's Twitter-like platform.
Hubei has previously ordered all its residents to get the color-based QR code -- which comes in red, yellow and green -- and acts as an indicator of people's health status.
The colors are assigned consistent with the provincial epidemic control database: people that are diagnosed as confirmed, suspected or asymptomatic cases, or people with a fever will receive the red color code; their close contacts will receive the yellow code; and other people with none record within the database will get the green code -- meaning they're healthy and safe to travel.
On April 8, the easing of restrictions are going to be extended to Wuhan, where the coronavirus first emerged in December, and residents with a green QR code are going to be ready to leave the town and therefore the province.
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| A general view shows a road in Wuhan on March 10 |
Moreover, people from other parts of China are going to be allowed to enter Hubei and Wuhan if they will produce a green QR code, with no additional paperwork required, the notice said.
Businesses in Wuhan also will gradually resume operations, supported risk assessment, while the reopening dates for schools and universities remain to be determined, consistent with the notice.
'This is that the day i have been waiting for'
Bo Hanlin, a Wuhan resident who has been confined to his home for 2 months, said he welcomed the news.
"This is that the day i have been expecting ," he told CNN Tuesday.
Over the past week, there have been already signs that the municipal authorities wanted to gradually return life to normal.
Some residents are allowed to travel back to figure as long as their employers issue them a letter, Bo said.
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| Individuals purchase pork at the entryway of a shut private network in Wuhan on March 18 |
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The Wuhan government announced on Sunday that residents with a green health QR code and a letter from their employer are going to be allowed to travel back to figure , and only got to undergo temperature checks once they return home.
All checkpoints within the town are going to be removed, and public transportation services are going to be gradually resumed, it said.
Bo, a photographer who runs his own studio, said he had not been ready to return to figure , as he doesn't have a corporation to issue him an employment letter.
Food delivery services have also gradually resumed over the past week, consistent with Bo, and a few eateries inside residential communities have reopened.
But residents aside from those returning to figure are still not allowed to go away their residential compounds, and supermarkets remain closed, he added.
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| A volunteer guards a temporary wall blocking a road in Wuhan on March 12 |
For quite a month, Wuhan residents are told to remain reception because the government escalated the lockdown measures -- they are not even allowed to travel outside to buy for groceries, and instead need to believe designated neighborhood committees to form group orders for daily necessities, often at a better price.
For now, Bo said residents were still not allowed to travel out grocery shopping, but he said the costs had began to come down, and there have been now more choices for vegetables.
The Hubei provincial government announcement on Tuesday didn't specify when the lockdown on residential communities in Wuhan are going to be lifted.
Bo questions why outsiders are going to be allowed to enter Wuhan, while many of the city's residents are still confined to their homes and residential communities.
"As a Wuhan resident, I feel the danger remains high. What if there's an imported case? We'll need to stay home again," he said.
Source: CNN
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