Thousands yesterday streamed out of Wuhan, China, after a lockdown on the epicenter of COVID-19 was lifted, offering a ray of hope even as Europe and the US faced rising deaths and crippling economic pain.
New York endured one of its darkest days so far, with the virus death toll surging past 4,000, hundreds more than the number killed on Sept. 11, 2001.
New York state on Tuesday recorded 731 new coronavirus deaths, its biggest one-day jump yet, for a statewide toll of nearly 5,500.
Photo: AFP
“Behind every one of those numbers is an individual. There’s a family, there’s a mother, there’s a father, there’s a sister, there’s a brother. So a lot of pain again today,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said.
The US mourned another 1,939 deaths in 24 hours, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University, bringing the nation’s death toll to nearly 13,000.
The hardest-hit countries, among them Italy, Spain and France, are also grappling with how to balance public safety with the devastating effects of shutdowns that have erased millions of jobs, sent financial markets plunging and pummeled major industries.
Photo: AFP
In an alarming calculation of the economic costs, the French economy recorded its worst performance since 1945 during the first quarter, shrinking about 6 percent.
Yet health experts stressed it is too early to loosen restrictions.
“Now is not the time to relax measures. It is the time to once again double and triple our collective efforts to drive towards suppression with the whole support of society,” WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge said.
In Wuhan, which led the world with its unprecedented lockdown, strict measures appeared to have paid off. After a nearly 11-week travel ban was finally lifted, tens of thousands of people fled the city in joyous scenes that contrasted with the macabre mood around much of the world — even if some train passengers were traveling in hazmat suits.
“I’ve been stuck for 77 days. I’ve been stuck for 77 days,” shouted one man, who arrived at the railway station for a train back to his home province of Hunan.
Yet not all is back to normal, with schools still closed and travel discouraged. At the train station a robot whirred through crowds to spray their feet with disinfectant as it played a recorded message reminding them to wear masks.
Passengers also had to pass temperatures checks and show green “health codes” on their phone, which are calculated in part by whether their neighborhoods have been declared virus-free.
“Wuhan has lost a lot in this epidemic, and Wuhan people have paid a big price,” a 21-year-old man surnamed Yao said.
“Now that the lockdown has been lifted, I think we’re all pretty happy,” he added.
Yet even as Wuhan came back to life, new imported cases in Heilongjiang Province surged to a daily high of 25, fueled by an influx of infected travelers crossing the border from Russia.
Suifenhe, a city in Heilongjiang, yesterday announced restrictions on the movement of citizens similar to the measures Wuhan has endured.
Meanwhile, in Spain, home to the world’s second-deadliest outbreak, another 757 deaths were reported yesterday, bringing the toll up for a second day after several days of decline.
Hundreds are still dying daily in devastated Italy, although the peak of the crisis appears to have passed, with the daily rise of infections hitting a new low of 3,039.
Britain, meanwhile, reported a record 786 more deaths on Tuesday, while British Prime Minister Boris Johnson entered his third day in intensive care yesterday.
Additional reporting by AP and Reuters
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