By Laura Kemp • Published: 08 Apr 2020 • 17:18
THE original hub of the coronavirus pandemic, Wuhan, a central Chinese city in the province of Hubei has lifted its lockdown after 76 days of trying to contain the coronavirus, despite fears of a second spike in infections if restrictions were lifted too early.
The 11 million inhabitants of Wuhan were confined to their city after January 23 when authorities recognised the true danger of this deadly and contagious virus.
Trains have been departing out of the city since 5.00am, local time, on Wednesday and highways leaving Wuhan have been reopened at around the same time.
Lui Xaiomin, a migrant worker, departing from Wuhan’s Hankou train station to return to Xiagnyang told Reuters that she was “very happy” to be “going home today.”
This topic has been trending on the famous Chinese version of Twitter, Weibo, with hashtags like Welcome Back Wuhan and Wuhan Lifts Lockdown trending.
Ticket sales have shown that approximately 55,000 people have left Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus, via the train station on Wednesday.
However, health officials on Tuesday urged residents in Wuhan to not leave their neighbourhoods, city and even province if unnecessary.
Yang Chengjun, a man leaving Wuhan to return to his job in Fuzhou explained his worries about “the number of asymptomatic patients has been slowly going up.”
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Originally from UK, Laura is based in Axarquia and is a writer for the Euro Weekly News covering news and features. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com.
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