EYESHENZHEN  /   Opinion

May February march in April

Writer: Winton Dong  |  Editor: Jane Chen  |  From: Shenzhen Daily 

Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei Province, reopened on April 8 after a 76-day lockdown.

In order to contain the spread of COVID-19, on Jan. 23 the Wuhan Municipal Government announced the lockdown of the huge city in Central China, hardest-hit in all of China, with more than 12 million residents.

From then on, all public transportation in the city was suspended, all outbound flights and trains were halted and residents were required to stay at home to break the viral chain of transmission.

The lockdown of Wuhan was a very difficult decision for China. However, it was also a right decision based on the people-centered philosophy in traditional Chinese culture. 

The lockdown of an important provincial capital is unprecedented in modern Chinese history, but has been proved to be effective. With the sacrifice of the people of Wuhan, and even Hubei as a whole, China succeeded in containing the epidemic in less than three months.

Ending the lockdown of Wuhan is also a strong signal that the domestic spread of the virus, with Wuhan as the main battlefield, has effectively been put under control and the whole nation has made monumental progress in the war against the COVID-19 outbreak.

Wuhan is now the eighth largest city economy in China. Its GDP in 2019 was 1.62 trillion yuan (US$229.4 billion), almost equal to that of New Zealand. The pandemic has severely affected and even destroyed some of the pillar industries of Wuhan. With the costs of disruption of daily life for local citizens, the sacrifice of the local economy and the strictest epidemic prevention and control measures, the city won China, and the rest of the world, an opportunity to curb the rampant virus.

All of the nation, the Central leadership, medical staff, army personnel, construction workers and volunteers from all walks of life should be lauded for their great contributions in the fight against the pandemic. The Central leadership quickly mobilized national medical resources for disaster relief. Nineteen provinces were required to form partnerships with 16 cities and counties in Hubei Province to make up for their medical resource shortages. According to statistics, more than 340 medical teams consisting of 42,600 medical workers, from all over the country, rushed to the rescue of Hubei. The number included about 4,000 medical staff from the People’s Liberation Army.

The battle against the virus was not limited to hospital staff. During the Chinese New Year holiday, thousands of construction workers braved chilly and snowy weather to work around the clock, to build from scratch, two hospitals in Wuhan, Huoshenshan and Leishenshan. Both were built in just two weeks, and each had more than 1,000 beds. 

Police officers, grass-roots public servants, sanitation workers, community volunteers and many other Chinese people also made their contributions to the fight.

Wuhan and its people received all due praise and respect for their endurance and sacrifice. On the night of April 7, many Chinese people and netizens expressed their joy on social media platforms for Wuhan’s reopening. 

All tall buildings in the city were also lit up with messages such as “Hello, Wuhan” or “Stay Strong, Wuhan” to show local people’s happiness, excitement and best wishes to the city.

Ending the lockdown was an important step forward for Wuhan, but it is definitely not a reason to party, nor is it an excuse to let our guard down. In other words, lifting travel restrictions does not mean lifting prevention and control measures. Since people can now freely travel within, to and from Wuhan, strict measures must continue in the city to prevent a possible return of the highly contagious virus.

As for the rest of the country, the free flow of the population means the risk of a second outbreak remains high, especially when considering the high number of imported cases and the appearance of some asymptomatic patients, so high vigilance is still needed to prevent the virus from going viral again.

As normal life resumes, people are desperate for entertainment and to go shopping. Meanwhile, many delicious foods such as hot-dry-noodle in Hubei, or “reganmian” in Chinese, will come back to the dinner table again. 

Nevertheless, this is not only a time for us to enjoy our lives anew and try new delicacies, more importantly, it is a time for us to make important changes from the bottom of our hearts, a time for us to reflect upon our traditional lifestyles, to show more respect to nature, to have stronger self-discipline, to be more compatible and to keep appropriate social distances.

(The author is the editor-in-chief of Shenzhen Daily with a Ph.D. from the Journalism and Communication School of Wuhan University.)