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Updated January 23rd, 2021 at 16:26 IST

Wuhan marks COVID-19 'lockdown anniversary' as world continues to battle pandemic

Wuhan looks back on year when lockdown brought life to standstill, shut businesses, ripped economy, grounded air travel and citizens were prohibited to leave.

Reported by: Zaini Majeed
Wuhan
| Image:self
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Wuhan, the Chinese city which was once the epicentre of coronavirus pandemic, marked the anniversary of the COVID-19 lockdown that was imposed during this month, last year. The restrictions, that clamped down 11 million residents in the central Chinese city within the home confinement, lasted almost 76 days to curb the spread of the SARS-CoV-2. The entire world continues to battle the pandemic, China marked the anniversary with the triumph over the virus and denial that it ‘came from somewhere - anywhere - but here’ according to sources BBC, despite the reports that the first infection was detected at Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) and pneumonia-like illness sickened the leading scientist Shi Zhengli’s after the outbreak emanated from the Chinese laboratory. However, the director of the WIV has since denied the claims in China’s state-run press.

Life in Wuhan, on Friday, was seen almost restored to the ‘pre-pandemic normal’ as Chinese residents walked in a fog-shrouded park beside the mighty Yangtze River. Coronavirus, which claimed more than 2 million lives worldwide was first reported in the city last year and accounted for 4,635 fatalities in communist China. As the city’s streets bustled with shoppers, traffic sped by, and people carried on to their day-to-day lives with no sign of pathogen wreaking havoc on the Chinese lives, several European countries, the UK and the UK are now reported struggling to work containment strategies to suppress new mutants of the deadly virus as they imposed restrictive measures and emergency lockdowns due to alarming surge in the death toll. 

As Wuhan, Hubei province marks the first anniversary of the extreme step that the government took on recommendations of China’s National Health Commission, it looked back on a year when the lockdown brought life on a standstill, shuttered businesses, and ripped the economy apart. The air travel was grounded and citizens were issued orders, prohibiting them from leaving the city and spreading the virus around China. Homes of those that had been exposed to the malignant pathogen were marked by Chinese law enforcement with a cross as Wuhan hospitals flooded with patients that were then identified reporting “pneumonia-like symptoms”—symptoms such as high temperature, cough, and respiratory distress with breathing difficulties.

Read: Swine Fever Spreading Across China May Have Origin In Illicit Vaccines: Report

Read: 'Stop Any Form Of Meddling': China Slams 'gross Interference' By EU Lawmakers On Hong Kong

'A little too late': World now in deep crisis

While Wuhan lab alerted the Chinese health authorities of coronavirus similar to the 2002-03 SARS outbreak, journalists, doctors, and Xi Jinping’s critic whistleblowers were held under detention for leaking information. Chinese ophthalmologist Dr Li Wenliang who succumbed to the coronavirus last year, posted an initial warning about the deadly coronavirus outbreak that had spread worldwide—a little too late when the Chinese government sprang to action. Police were reported threatening him to stop "making false comments”.

In January 2020, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention obtained a full sequence of the virus but abstained from publishing the full report. By January 13, 2020, the first confirmed COVID-19 case was reported outside China in Thailand. Top Chinese medical expert, Dr Zhong Nanshan, made an appearance on state TV warning that the newly detected virus was ‘dangerously’ transmissible. At 2 am on January 23, 2020, the Chinese government bombarded text messages on smartphones announcing the world’s first-ever ‘Wuhan lockdown’, locking the entire city sharp at 10 am in the morning. 56 million people later that week were shut at homes with threats of police detention in the rest of Hubei province. 

A walkthrough in pics from Wuhan lockdown 2020:

[Shuttered Wuhan Huanan Wholesale Seafood Market.]

[Air travel advisory issued at airport]

[Tempertaure checks started for the first time via digital thermometers] 

[Patients admitted intensive care unit at Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University in Wuhan with 'pneumonia-like' symptoms]

[Chinese shoppers empty shelves due to panic buying.]

[Ambulance drives on an empty Wuhan bridge] 

[Workers in protective gears called PPE appeared on Wuhan streets doing sanitization] 

 

[Ambulances answer emergency calls to carry SARS-CoV-2 patients reporting breathing problems]

Read: China Law Empowers Coast Guard To Use Force Amid Disputes

Read: Diplomats Contact Canadian Held For Over 2 Years In China

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Published January 23rd, 2021 at 16:26 IST

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