Wuhan Residents Told To Stay Inside, Be Vigilant

By Staff, Agencies

Residents of Wuhan were warned to stay indoors and strengthen protection measures, a few days before travel restrictions on the city at the center of the pandemic are scheduled to be lifted.

The city’s top official urged vigilance as authorities sought to ward off a second wave of infection from incoming travelers, while also easing some of its stringent containment measures.

China has reported more than 81,600 cases of the virus since the outbreak began, including 3,322 deaths, but the level of transparency around the figures has been questioned.

Until this week, China’s national health commission was not including people who tested positive but showed no symptoms in its tally. On Friday it reported 31 new confirmed cases, including two locally transmitted infections. Four people died, all of them in Wuhan.

While the number of daily cases has dropped dramatically since February, Wang Zhonglin, Wuhan’s Communist party chief, said the risk of a rebound in the city’s epidemic remained high due to both internal and external risks and it must continue to maintain prevention and control measures.

Wuhan has eased restrictions over recent weeks and authorities have said curbs on travel will lift on 8 April, for those with the green “health code”.

The pandemic has reached new heights across the world – in particular in the US where authorities have reported nearly 240,000 infections and 5,798 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.

More than a million people have been diagnosed with Covid-19 and more than 51,400 people have died.