beijingwalker
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‘Now we are not in a state of fear’: Life slowly returns to normal in China
As coronavirus cases decrease, people begin emerging from isolation onto the streets
50 minutes ago
A local medical worker embraces and bids farewell to a medical worker from Jiangsu at the Wuhan Railway Station as the medical team from Jiangsu leaves Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus disease outbreak, in Hubei province. Photograph: Reuters
At 44KW, a nightclub in Shanghai, life almost feels normal again. Bartenders mix cocktails for patrons leaning against the bar. Groups sit close together without face masks on, talking and sipping their drinks. A young woman pulls down her mask and speaks into her phone as she livestreams to her followers. A DJ plays disco under a neon sign saying “Dance me to the end of love” while a few venture out to the dance floor.
“Right now we need music,” said Kaijie Huang (27) who manages the club, which opened its doors last Thursday after more than a month of staying shuttered as Shanghai joined cities across China in various levels of lockdown to contain the coronavirus outbreak. “A lot of people seem very lonely because they all had to stay at home,” she said.
For many in China, life is slowly returning to normal, giving other countries a glimpse of what might await them once the worst of the epidemic has passed.
Elsewhere in Shanghai, women walk arm in arm past a reopened shopping district. Narrow pavements are crowded as residents browse food shops. At one entrance to a hospital, a man wore his hazmat suit partly unzipped as he waved in cars.
In Beijing, traffic has begun to return and more residents can be seen out on the streets, in parks and in shopping and restaurant districts. Jia Shu’na (20) travelled to Beijing on Wednesday, a stop along her route back home to Inner Mongolia to resume classes.
“Now I feel like things are gradually recovering. Now a lot of transportation has opened up,” she said, sitting in a park with her luggage. Jia said she noticed long lines at the train station when she departed from the southern province of Yunnan, and several people in each train car. “Many people have gone out. It’s much better than before,” she said.
More than 80,000 people have been infected by the virus that first appeared in the city of Wuhan, killing more than 3,000, but the number of new infections per day has dropped dramatically.
For several days in a row, China has reported no new locally transmitted infections. Authorities are loosening restrictions and trying to crank back up the stalled economy, urging factories and businesses to resume operation.
On Wednesday, Chinese leader Xi Jinping ordered officials at all levels of the government and Communist party to move with “urgency” in restoring economic and social order. In low-risk areas, production and normal life “must be fully restored,” he said, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
On Thursday, Wuhan reported no new infections for the first time. Local authorities in the surrounding Hubei province, outside of Wuhan, loosened travel restrictions, allowing residents deemed healthy to begin moving around. Companies are able to arrange for their workers to come back to Wuhan and most car checkpoints have been removed.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/wor...e-slowly-returns-to-normal-in-china-1.4209010
As coronavirus cases decrease, people begin emerging from isolation onto the streets
50 minutes ago
A local medical worker embraces and bids farewell to a medical worker from Jiangsu at the Wuhan Railway Station as the medical team from Jiangsu leaves Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus disease outbreak, in Hubei province. Photograph: Reuters
At 44KW, a nightclub in Shanghai, life almost feels normal again. Bartenders mix cocktails for patrons leaning against the bar. Groups sit close together without face masks on, talking and sipping their drinks. A young woman pulls down her mask and speaks into her phone as she livestreams to her followers. A DJ plays disco under a neon sign saying “Dance me to the end of love” while a few venture out to the dance floor.
“Right now we need music,” said Kaijie Huang (27) who manages the club, which opened its doors last Thursday after more than a month of staying shuttered as Shanghai joined cities across China in various levels of lockdown to contain the coronavirus outbreak. “A lot of people seem very lonely because they all had to stay at home,” she said.
For many in China, life is slowly returning to normal, giving other countries a glimpse of what might await them once the worst of the epidemic has passed.
Elsewhere in Shanghai, women walk arm in arm past a reopened shopping district. Narrow pavements are crowded as residents browse food shops. At one entrance to a hospital, a man wore his hazmat suit partly unzipped as he waved in cars.
In Beijing, traffic has begun to return and more residents can be seen out on the streets, in parks and in shopping and restaurant districts. Jia Shu’na (20) travelled to Beijing on Wednesday, a stop along her route back home to Inner Mongolia to resume classes.
“Now I feel like things are gradually recovering. Now a lot of transportation has opened up,” she said, sitting in a park with her luggage. Jia said she noticed long lines at the train station when she departed from the southern province of Yunnan, and several people in each train car. “Many people have gone out. It’s much better than before,” she said.
More than 80,000 people have been infected by the virus that first appeared in the city of Wuhan, killing more than 3,000, but the number of new infections per day has dropped dramatically.
For several days in a row, China has reported no new locally transmitted infections. Authorities are loosening restrictions and trying to crank back up the stalled economy, urging factories and businesses to resume operation.
On Wednesday, Chinese leader Xi Jinping ordered officials at all levels of the government and Communist party to move with “urgency” in restoring economic and social order. In low-risk areas, production and normal life “must be fully restored,” he said, according to state broadcaster CCTV.
On Thursday, Wuhan reported no new infections for the first time. Local authorities in the surrounding Hubei province, outside of Wuhan, loosened travel restrictions, allowing residents deemed healthy to begin moving around. Companies are able to arrange for their workers to come back to Wuhan and most car checkpoints have been removed.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/wor...e-slowly-returns-to-normal-in-china-1.4209010
