Wuhan: Three years after Corona, residents celebrate life

Chinese new year
Three years after the Corona outbreak: Wuhan is celebrating the return to normality

These women pray for the Chinese New Year celebrations in Wuhan – possibly also because the great danger of corona seems to have been averted

© AFP

Three years after Wuhan made the headlines as the starting point of the corona pandemic, the population is not only celebrating the Chinese New Year. The relief at the end of the strict Covid measures is great.

The Chinese city of Wuhan was the first corona hotspot in the world to be sealed off from the outside world at the beginning of the pandemic – three years later, the inhabitants of the metropolis have left their fear of the virus behind. Many residents were relieved on Monday that normality was back in their city on the third anniversary of the lockdown. “Of course, the new year will be better,” cleaner Yan Dongju told AFP. “We are no longer afraid of the virus.”

After the relaxation of the strict corona measures in China, everyday life in Wuhan has now returned. During the Chinese New Year holiday, people crowded the city’s markets, visited food stalls and restaurants, or headed to Guiyuan Temple, which was open for the first time in three years during the Chinese New Year holiday.

First Corona cases in Wuhan

The delivery driver Liang Feicheng also expressed his satisfaction with the abolition of the corona restrictions. “People go about their lives, meet with their family and friends, go out to play, travel and be happy.”

The first corona cases were detected in Wuhan at the end of 2019. The city of millions in Hubei Province was then completely sealed off from the outside world for 76 days. The residents holed up in their homes for fear of contagion.

Former Covid clinic is empty

A hospital was built from scratch in just ten days. The building is now empty, and a banner there praises the government’s successes in the fight against the corona virus. A new school called House of Hope now stands above a shop where AFP photographed a man’s body three years ago.


State of emergency among paediatricians: infections are increasing – fever syrups and other medicines are missing

The animal market in Wuhan, which is considered a possible starting point of the corona pandemic, has not reopened to this day.

The Chinese government followed a zero-Covid policy until the end of the pandemic and ordered week-long lockdowns and mass tests for millions of Chinese. At the beginning of December, Beijing then implemented an abrupt change of strategy and eased the restrictions significantly. The country is currently experiencing the highest increase in corona infections in the world, and hospitals are overcrowded in many places.

tkr
AFP

source site-1