Citizens in the Chinese city of Wuhan are slowly emerging from weeks of lockdown - but life is still far from normal, as STEPHEN LEWIS reports

Wuhan, Thursday April 2

THE streets of this teeming city of 11 million people are no longer deserted.

With the number of new cases of coronavirus having fallen close to zero, a slow return to work is beginning.

Cars are back on the roads, buses and underground lines are running again, and more and more people are emerging from weeks of lockdown to do their own shopping at the supermarket.

Yet it is a wary easing of lockdown restrictions - and many people continue to be worried about what could happen if the coronavirus were to return, a resident said.

The city is still divided into neighbourhoods. There are those that have been declared ‘virus free zones’ - and those that have not.

In zones not declared virus free, the restrictions and self-isolation continue. Families remain cooped up in their flats, with food and other supplies being delivered to their neighbourhoods by drivers in hazmat gear.

The restrictions are easing in zones declared virus free, however. Families from these zones can leave their flats to go to the supermarket or - if their company has gone back to work - to go to their place of employment.

Yet even here, those want to leave their zone to go out into the city must pass a checkpoint at the entrance to their neighbourhood, where their temperature will be taken.

Face masks are still required in public. Citizens over 65 are not allowed to use public transport. And there is a new phenomenon for Wuhan residents: the health QR code on their mobile phone.

This is an app on every Wuhan citizen’s phone that registers the state of their health.

Green means you are virus free and can move around; grey means you have been somewhere recently visited by someone with the virus, and must self-isolate for seven days; yellow means that you potentially have the virus and again must self-isolate for seven days; and red means you have the virus and must isolate yourself for 14 days.

The app also tracks your movements. You have to register your QR code whenever you get on and off a bus or the underground, or when you enter a supermarket.

The movements of people who go on to develop coronavirus can then be tracked back. And anyone who may have come into contact with them may find their ‘health’ colour - and hence their freedom to move around - changing.

It is a system that Chinese citizens elsewhere have got used to since the pandemic began. But it was not operated in Wuhan because the entire city was locked down.

“But when the situation was relaxed and residents from virus free zones were allowed to visit shops, the tools became useful,” a resident said. “All the public transport - buses and underground - need the code for access. “

Naturally, residents dread their colour code being changed. There are several ways in which this can happen.

“When there is a temperature check at a station or shop and your body temperature is not normal, the colour may turn from green to yellow or red,” the resident said. This can also happen if you had the misfortune to be on a bus or underground car with someone who later tested positive for the virus: then your colour will turn to grey.

The good news is that you can regain your coveted ‘green’ status after you have been through the required period of isolation.

You can also apply to change your colour, if you think a mistake was made.

“Staff will double check and correct the colour if the mistake is confirmed,” the resident said.

People are still not allowed to leave Wuhan. However, in the rest of Hubei Province - the UK-sized province of which Wuhan is the capital - there is much more freedom to travel. Hubei residents can even leave their own province and travel to other provinces by train or bus.

This has thrown up a problem, however. Health QR codes are needed to travel around Hubei and between provinces, as they are needed to travel everywhere in China.

But if you set out from Hubei with a green colour coding, that may then change to grey or yellow if you come into contact on a bus or train with someone who later tests positive for the virus. In that case, you may find yourself having to self-isolate far from home.

Different oprovinces also do not necessarily trust each-other’s colour-coding standards. Because of this, a Hubei ‘green’ coding may not be accepted when you pass into another province: and you may be required to re-register afresh.

“What we really need is a standardised coding system for the whole of China,” one resident said.