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China easing Wuhan lockdown, fight continues against imported Covid-19 cases

Hindustan Times, Beijing | BySutirtho Patranobis
Mar 23, 2020 02:35 PM IST

No new confirmed case of Covid-19 was reported Sunday in Wuhan, marking the fifth day in a row of zero report.

China continued the gradual easing of the lockdown mode in the coronavirus-hit Hubei province and its capital Wuhan city as the country recorded zero new cases of domestic Covid-19 infections on Sunday.

China reported 39 new overseas cases of the infection with Beijing and Shanghai reporting 10 new cases each.

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It was a drop from Saturday’s 46 overseas cases.

No new confirmed case of Covid-19 was reported Sunday in Wuhan, marking the fifth day in a row of zero report as the former hardest-hit city recovers from the epidemic, local media reported.

The rest of the province outside Wuhan had not seen new indigenous Covid-19 cases for 17 consecutive days.

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All nine deaths reported in the mainland on Sunday, however, were in Wuhan, national health commission (NHC) reported on Monday.

“The overall confirmed cases on the mainland had reached 81,093 by the end of Sunday, including 5,120 patients who were still being treated, 72,703 patients who had been discharged after recovery, and 3,270 people who died of the disease,” the official news agency, Xinhua reported.

Health officials said that most regions in China are now at low-risk of the novel Covid-19 outbreak.

Meanwhile, residents living in and outside Wuhan will be allowed to travel into the city to resume work if they have a green health code issued by the government and normal body temperature, state media reported quoting a new notice from the local epidemic prevention and control command centre.

From this week, non-local people stranded in Wuhan can also apply to leave the city after taking getting health check-up and receiving a health certificate from the government.

Wuhan, a city of around 11 million people, was locked down on January 23 in an attempt by the government to contain the spread of the outbreak.

The lockdown was then gradually extended to the entire province with several cities also locked down and intra-provincial transportation completely shut down.

China is scrambling to contain the overseas cases of Covid-19, which until Sunday midnight was more than 350.

Of the 39 newly imported cases, 10 were reported in Beijing, 10 in Shanghai, six in Fujian, six in Guangdong, two in Shandong and Gansu respectively, and one in Zhejiang, Henan and Chongqing respectively, according to the NHC.

Starting Monday, all international flights into Beijing will first land at another airport, where passengers will undergo virus screening, government agencies said on Sunday, in an expansion of existing measures.

“All international flights must first divert to one of the 12 designated entry points in other cities before they are allowed to enter Beijing. Airports including Tianjin, Shijiazhuang, Taiyuan, Shanghai are on the list,” the Civil Aviation Administration of China said.

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