A year since…: Wuhan, ground zero of COVID pandemic, returns to normal

One year ago, when China had announced the first death from a new virus, namely coronavirus, it was hugely unprecedented how it was going to change all our lives. One year later, the same virus has killed about 1.9 million people as it spread across the globe like a forest fire.

However, the Chinese city where the virus had first emerged had successfully contained the virus in 2020 itself and normalcy had been restored too.

As Monday morning marked one year since the first death, life went on normally with people going to work, and all public places buzzing with people – a different scene from the entire world that is still partially locked or at least socially distant. In the busy park next to the Yangtze river, elderly couples danced. Only some were wearing masks and their hands were clasped together – alien to the outside world which has forgotten the concept of touch.

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It was January 11, 2020, when China confirmed its first death from coronavirus. The man in question was a 61-year-old, who was a regular visitor at the now-infamous Wuhan wet market. He was one of the first few people to be infected with coronavirus in the entire world.

The world was largely unaware of what was going to happen in the following months and how the virus that killed the man would change so many things for us. There is very little information available about the first victim. The market that was traced to be the first area where a cluster of cases was found is still closed, surrounded by boarding.

After China had denied individuals from World Health Organisation (WHO) to visit the country to research the emergence of the virus, it has now finally agreed to let them in. The international community hopes to find intricate details from the early days of the virus in Wuhan.

“Wuhan is the safest city in China now, even the whole world,” 66-year-old resident Xiong Liansheng told AFP on Monday.

“The Wuhan people’s awareness of epidemic prevention and control is very high — even my two-year-old grandson will wear a mask when going out,” said Xiong.

“Most cases in China are imported from overseas now and our country has a good control of it,” said Zhong, an 80-year-old woman giving only one name.

“All the Wuhan people feel very safe in the city, and we come here and dance happily every day.”

China was heavily criticised in its country as well as abroad for how it had initially handled the virus. It had even attempted to silence the whistleblowers. It carried a lackadaisical attitude in reporting the initial cases to the world in early January.

Two weeks after the first death was reported in Wuhan, the entire city and the surrounding province was put under lockdown.

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The virus has been emerging again in China in the last few days – 103 new cases were reported on Monday that is the highest it has been since July 2020. Most of the infections were reported in northern Hebei province. Transport links from the province have been shut and schools have also been closed as China is trying its best to contain the virus.

As the Lunar New Year approaches, plans of travel might have to be stalled to contain the spread of the virus.

Even the rising cases, daily cases in China is much less other countries like the United States, Britain, and many European countries

4,634 deaths have been reported from COVID-19 in China to date.