China's COVID-19 epicentre Wuhan pivots to stem imported cases
29 March, 2020
The ground-zero city of Wuhan is cautiously reopening after a two-month quarantine, however the birthplace of the global coronavirus pandemic is currently on protect from a potential new threat: Imported cases.
Travel restrictions have already been loosened, with Wuhan's busy place officially resuming inbound services on Saturday (Mar 28) and highways reopened as the unprecedented lockdown that kept more than 50 million persons across Hubei province housebound is lifted.
Which has unleashed a reverse tide of local residents who were stranded elsewhere in China - where many reported facing ostracism or restrictions on their movements - and are now flocking back to homes they have not seen for at least 10 weeks.
The returnees - many arriving by train wearing two face masks, latex gloves and protective suits - bring with them the potential for a new round of infections, and authorities are taking few chances.
Before leaving Wuhan's station, all passengers are required to register their personal stats and travel history before proceeding through temperature checks.
In addition they must show the certificate of good health or a "green" rating - for "safe" - on a cellular phone app system that has been adopted nationwide and uses big data to track whether a person visited any high-risk areas in China.
Without that, travellers must submit to a nucleic acid test for the virus, an official in Wuhan's Jiangan district told AFP.
Those that report or who are suspected of having travelled abroad recently are delivered to another registration area, where personnel in hazmat suits check their details.
"SAFER IN CHINA"
"Initially we were more scared and maybe thought it had been safer overseas," said Han Li, who is involved in processing returnees to the town.
"But now it generally does not seem in this manner. It seems it could possibly be safer within China."
China claims success in suppressing the virus, with official figures now routinely showing no new domestic infections.
In Wuhan, which at the peak of the crisis recorded thousands of fresh cases daily, which has dropped to zero.
But with america, Europe and other regions now fighting their own outbreaks, China is reporting a large number of imported cases every day, and has shifted the focus of its prevention effort to the external threat.
China took the dramatic step of announcing Thursday a cut in the amount of international flights to just one single route weekly to and from each country, limiting the passenger capacity of flights to 75 %, and imposing a ban on most foreigners entering China, even people that have valid residence visas.
Underlining the risks to Wuhan, huge amounts of passengers have crowded onto trains and buses to return home, threatening to swamp the traumatised city's containment measures.
In the nearby city of Huanggang, several hotels remain closed, diners are still forbidden to consume inside restaurants, with only take-out offered, while signs hanging in the streets warn of the continued threat.
"Gathering to play cards is suicide," said one roadside banner.
NO VACANCY
On Saturday, an area health worker in Wuhan pried open the glass doors of a shuttered hotel that once was used to quarantine suspected COVID-19 patients, so as to create a virus-testing site.
AFP reporters who arrived recently in the town were among those told they must take the test, conducted in a make-shift manner while seated on a plastic stool outside the hotel entrance as a health worker took throat swabs.
The test subjects included an area woman whom the health worker said was a recovered COVID-19 patient.
Employees at multiple international hotels in the city told AFP that no foreigners were permitted to book rooms due to the ongoing pandemic.
At least one hotel said foreign guests must have proof that that they had completed a two-week quarantine, regardless if that they had stayed in China since before the outbreak.
"Things are more tightly manipulated now," a hotel receptionist told AFP.
Wuhan's measures act like those imposed by local governments elsewhere in China, with many provinces requiring international arrivals to isolate themselves at home or in designated quarantine facilities for two weeks.
Restrictions on residents moving out of Wuhan will never be lifted until Apr 8, when the airport will also reopen for domestic flights.
A report this week found the lockdown in Wuhan had succeeded in containing the virus, but cautioned against checking the city too early.
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