How the people of Wuhan greeted the end of lockdown

WUHAN, Wednesday April 8

At midnight, as Tuesday ticked over to Wednesday, the skyline of this huge, modern city of 11 million people lit up like a torch.

Across the city, neon lights on shops and offices were turned on all at once as the people of Wuhan celebrated the end of more than two months of lockdown.

The reason for the celebration? April 8 was the day when, for the first time since the lockdown began on January 23, people were allowed to leave this city where the coronavirus first emerged - by rail, car or bus.

Throughout the day, queues formed as people who had not seen family or friends for months queued to get tickets out of the city. Places were limited, however - only a percentage of train seats were in use, so as to maintain social distancing

Travel is also still restricted to those who have a 'green' code - signifying that they are symptom-free - on the health app on their phone. And apart from those going to work, most residents are still allowed out for exercise or relaxation for only two hours a day. All must wear masks.

Nevertheless, already by April 3, 85 per cent shops in Wuhan were open as normal. But sales were way down on what they had been before the crisis. And most of those venturing out were still more interested in basic essentials - food and medicines - than in luxuries such as fashion or a new mobile phone.

One older woman who went out for a walk for the first time in more than two months admitted she was worried about how well she would be able to walk after being cooped up in close confines for so long.

"Thankfully I could manage," she said. "Everybody was still wearing their face masks, and the shops would only allow a certain number of people in at any one time. You had to have your temperature tested at the entrance of every shop before you could go in."

She was determined not to use public transport, she added, whether bus or underground. "And I will only go to small local shops. I'm still very concerned about catching the virus."

One reason for such concern is that on April 2, the government began to release, for the first time, the numbers of cases of people who have tested positive for coronavirus without showing any symptoms.

In Wuhan alone, there are hundreds of such cases at least: symptom-free coronavirus carriers who were not included in earlier statistics. Many people are concerned they may come into contact with such a person, and catch the virus without ever knowing how.

Nevertheless, with the lockdown easing, popular destinations such as the Hankou Jiangtan (the riverside park in the Hangkou area of Wuhan) are becoming busier.

Office workers are also going back to work - though it remains very much a phased return.

One office middle manager said he had found himself sitting in an empty office. He was one of the first office staff to return in his company - more will go back to work next week, and staff will then work on a rota basis, so they never need to come into close contact with each other.

Despite working in an almost empty office, the middle manager said he was still wearing his face mask. "You never know when someone might come into the room," he said. "And if they do come in suddenly, you would not have time to put the facemask on."

That is a sign of just how alert the people of this city remain to the possibility that the virus might yet return. It is why the celebrations have been muted - and why the city, one of China's great financial and commercial centres, has yet to recapture the full hustle and bustle of the time before the virus. "People are still very nervous!" a resident said.

Nervous - and still in mourning for the thousands who lost their lives. On March 30, China's traditional 'ancestor day' when people visit the graves ancestors to pay respects to their memory, millions of people across the country stood quietly to mourn the more than 3,300 Chinese citizens who have died from the disease.

It was the also first time in the history of the People's Republic of China that flags on official buildings had been flown at half mast in honour of ordinary people - a sure sign of just what a traumatic impact this virus has had on the world's most populous nation.