Wuhan, China, Lifts City Lockdown Then Cancels It... Seems Aware of 'Premature' Criticism

[Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, the epicenter of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), relaxed lockdown measures on the 24th by allowing non-residents to leave the area after one month of city lockdown, but then retracted the decision.

According to Global Times and others, starting from this day, Wuhan City eased the lockdown order to allow non-residents of Wuhan who have had no contact with COVID-19 patients and show no symptoms such as fever, cough, or difficulty breathing to leave Wuhan. This comes one month after Wuhan was fully locked down due to the spread of COVID-19. Additionally, people involved in city operations or disease control and treatment were also allowed to leave Wuhan with official permission, as part of the eased lockdown measures.

However, just three hours after this announcement, Wuhan authorities invalidated the easing of lockdown measures. They explained that "the announcement was made without review by the command center and approval from key leaders," and that those involved were severely reprimanded. They also stated that, following the instructions of President Xi Jinping, the routes from Wuhan to other regions are being strictly controlled to prevent the virus from spreading outside.

Global Times explained, "Immediately after the initial announcement, extensive discussions took place, and most questioned whether it was too early to ease activity restrictions while still fighting COVID-19."

Yang Zhanjiu, Associate Professor of Pathogen Biology at Wuhan University, evaluated the retraction as a safe and reasonable decision. He added that the partial allowance of movement could lead the public to mistakenly believe that the COVID-19 situation in Wuhan has improved, pointing out that "hundreds of confirmed cases are still being reported daily."

According to the Chinese National Health Commission (NHC) as of midnight, 409 new confirmed COVID-19 cases and 150 deaths were recorded nationwide. Of the 409 confirmed cases, 398 were from Hubei Province, and among the 150 deaths, 149 were patients from Hubei Province. One death was reported in Hainan Province.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.