A bride in a long white gown posed by Wuhan’s East Lake with her groom, masks off momentarily as a photographer snapped pre-wedding photographs.
At a nearby park in the city, a grandfather swung his tiny grandson in a hammock strung between trees, while families with tents and picnic mats made the most of a sunny Sunday afternoon.
Signs of life unimaginable during the recently ended lockdown at the COVID-19 pandemic’s ground zero have appeared in the past few days, as Wuhan returns to work-and-play days after lifting a 76-day quarantine on April 8.
Photo: AFP
Onlookers joined a man singing and dancing near a bridge by the Yangtze River, while swimmers dove into the water elsewhere along the bank, even as public spaces around the world fell silent under the shadow of the pandemic.
Wuhan’s malls and convenience stores reopened late last month, initially requiring visitors to submit to strict temperature checks and show a code on a special app that assigns each person a color-based rating depending on their level of infection risk.
By Saturday, some smaller stores were allowing customers in without any checks, while boutiques at the Hanjie outdoor shopping mall had stopped checking health codes.
Even traffic jams have returned, with vehicles slowing to a crawl on the way to the Wuhan railway station and in tunnels under the Yangtze during rush hour last week.
Final-year high-school students in the city and the surrounding Hubei Province are to return to school from May 6, officials said on Monday, while many workers have already returned to their offices.
“It may take a while, but things are moving in a good direction,” Bai Xue, a 24-year-old Wuhan resident, told reporters.
However, while new infections in the city have dwindled as the city recovers, fear of asymptomatic carriers and cases imported from overseas has stopped Wuhan from fully letting down its guard.
Commuters are urged to scan QR codes on subway trains to register the exact car they take, while lines of people seated on plastic chairs a safe distance apart stretch outside banks across the city.
Residential communities continue to monitor people entering and leaving compounds, while barricades remain on many streets in the metropolis of 11 million people.
Wuhan has reason to be fearful: After believed to have emerged in a live animal market late last year, the virus spread like wildfire across the city, infecting more than 50,000 and killing more than 3,800 — a toll revised upward last week after authorities admitted errors in counting victims.
The industrial city also faces great economic uncertainty, with businesses ranging from wholesale market sellers to cat cafes telling reporters that losses incurred during the lockdown have made rents unaffordable, while continued restrictions on movement within the city are hurting sales.
“We have very, very few customers,” said Han, the 27-year-old owner of a soy drink stall in central Wuhan.
Wuhan residents told reporters they were wary of celebrating too much, too soon.
“My life isn’t good,” said Li Xiongjie, a 30-year-old local who said the pandemic had left him unemployed. “Just staying alive is a victory, staying alive is the most important thing.”
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