Students in China's virus epicentre Wuhan go back to school
07 May, 2020
Youngsters in China's virus epicentre of Wuhan filed back again to class on Wednesday (May 6), wearing masks and walking in single file past thermal scanners.
Senior high school students in 121 institutions were back front of chalkboards and digital displays for the very first time since their city - the bottom zero of the COVID-19 pandemic - turn off in January.
"School is finally reopening!" posted one user of Weibo, China's Twitter-like short messaging platform.
"This is the first-time that I'm so pleased to go back to school, although I must sit a monthly examination on the 8th."
Teenagers sat at individual desks spaced a metre apart, seeing their teachers in the flesh after months of distance education.
Wednesday's back-to-school was the most recent part of a gradual normalising of life in Wuhan and surrounding Hubei province, where in fact the coronavirus is thought to have emerged late this past year before spreading all over the world.
Only the province's oldest students were present - seniors who are due to take the make-or-break university access exams.
Return dates have not yet been confirmed for junior and middle school students.
Officials in Wuhan say students and staff must all have already been tested for COVID-19 prior to going back again to school, and campuses have already been disinfected and cleaned.
In preparation for reopening, some schools spaced out their desks and organised smaller class sizes, according to local media.
Thermal scanners greeted everyone walking through school gates, and a person with a high temperature was not allowed in.
State-run China Daily said some places arranged staggered arrival times for teachers and students.
Elsewhere in China, schools which may have been closed or online-only since January commenced little by little reopening last month, with Beijing and Shanghai letting some students return last week.
China's major cities are little by little time for normal after imposing strict travel restrictions and closing huge swathes of the economy to regulate the spread of the virus.
Lately infections nationwide have dwindled, and there were no new cases reported in Hubei province for greater than a month.
Over a five-day holiday in the beginning of the month, there have been 115 million domestic trips, with many tourist sites reopening - although with limited attendance.
Shanghai Disneyland will reopen in a few days, the entertainment giant said on Tuesday, with enhanced safety precautions including temperature screening and social distancing.
However, foreigners remain banned from entering the united states as China works to contain infections being brought in from overseas.
Chinese nationals returning home must undergo 2 weeks of quarantine.
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