Wuhan residents dash to leave by road, air and train as city’s 76-day coronavirus lockdown finally lifted
WUHAN residents have made a dash to leave the city by road, air and train as the city's 76-day lockdown is finally lifted.
Pictures showed hundreds of cars arriving at motorway toll gates and travellers gathering outside transport hubs in the city, where the coronavirus outbreak first began in December.
⚠️ Read our coronavirus live blog for the latest news & updates
Wuhan has now recorded zero new deaths for the first time since the pandemic began, prompting authorities to go ahead with plans to lift a citywide quarantine imposed in January.
Residents were allowed to leave the city as of midnight local time, and the airport is now preparing to reopen to domestic flights.
According the, domestic passenger services at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport will resume on April 8.
Before entering the terminal, passengers will be required to scan a "Wuhan Fighting Epidemic" QR code and show their "green code”, a QR code issued in Hubei indicating the traveller is healthy.
Passengers will also get their temperatures taken and those above 37.3C will be “treated according to the relevant epidemic prevention rules”, said the China News Service.
Anyone leaving by road will be allowed to do so without special authorisation as long as they have a mandatory application installed on their smartphones.
The app is powered by a mix of data-tracking and government surveillance, and shows whether the user is healthy and whether they have recently been in contact with anyone confirmed to have the virus.
Trains are also scheduled to run from Wuhan to destinations across China, with the first due to leave for capital Beijing at 6.25am local time.
With the pandemic hitting hard across the world, officially the number of coronavirus cases in China is dwindling, ever since the Government imposed sweeping measures to keep the disease from spreading.
More than 1.4 million people around the world have been diagnosed with Covid-19, and there have been more than 81,000 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins tracker.
Last month, authorities began easing restrictions on the residents of Wuhan, which has endured months of an extraordinary lockdown to curb the spread of the virus.
The National Health Commission said it had 32 confirmed cases, down from 39 on Monday.
In total, the Chinese Government confirmed that more than 3,331 people have died and 81,740 have been confirmed as infected.
It comes as the Chinese Government came under scrutiny as to whether it was underreporting its figures.
Officials are now concerned that a second wave of infections could be brought in by foreign arrivals.
It has already shut its border to foreigners including those with visas or residence permits.
International flights have been reduced with both Chinese and foreign airlines only allowed to operate one international flight a week — and must not be more than 75 per cent full.
Some people in "epidemic-free" residential compounds in Wuhan have already been allowed to leave their homes for two hours.
But Wuhan officials revoked the "epidemic-free" status in 45 compounds because of the emergence of asymptomatic cases and for other unspecified reasons.
Asymptomatic refers to someone who is carrying the virus but experiencing no symptoms.
China began reporting asymptomatic cases at the beginning of April.
More than 1,033 asymptomatic patients are under medical observation.
Hitting back at claims China was too slow to raise the alarm, the country's state media have published what they describe as a detailed timeline of its response and information sharing.
