mandag 9. mars 2020

Coronavirus: ‘Homesick’ – China’s Wuhan residents return to outbreak epicentre

The young couple stepped from a Chinese bullet train onto the deserted platform of Wuhan Station and into the epicentre of the coronavirus epidemic, home at last after more than 40 days in limbo. Wuhan has been largely cut off from the outside world since January 23, when China’s government imposed an unprecedented lockdown of central Hubei province that affected tens of millions of people. But with the spread of the virus slowing in China while gaining pace elsewhere, some Hubei residents trapped outside the province by the containment measures are slowly trickling back to their sequestered families, believing that home is now as safe as anywhere.

“Some people coming (to China) from overseas could create a new eruption of the epidemic, so being in Wuhan could now be the safest choice,” said one half of the Wuhan couple, a 30-year-old woman surnamed Zhao.