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Wuhan, Revisited

Coronavirus Daily
Bloomberg

Wuhan, Revisited

What's it like in a city that eradicated the virus?

We visited Wuhan, the city of 11 million where the pathogen first emerged, to find out. It turns out, in China at least, it's a place where you can dance mask-less in a club but have to submit to a system of hyper-surveillance set up for rapid contact tracing should an infection emerge.

Hardly anyone checks on "health codes" that can be pulled up on mobile phones to determine a person's virus risk anymore, since the entire population was tested in May. Still, people generally wear masks in public. A national ID is required to purchase fever medication, people have to check in at most buildings before they enter and anyone with a high temperature is theoretically required to report it to the authorities.

China got the virus under control by quarantining 60 million people in Wuhan and the surrounding Hubei province as well as shutting down its borders – a lockdown that came at great economic and human cost. That isolation from and suspicion of outsiders has persisted, especially as the country faces

international backlash for its initial handling of the outbreak.

People dance inside the Hepburn nightclub in Wuhan, China, in August

Photographer: Yan Cong/Bloomberg

After a viral flareup in Beijing was initially linked to fish counters at the capital's wholesale food market, consumers began shunning imported salmon. More recently, the northern province of Shanxi ordered all Ecuadorian shrimp be taken off the market after the outer packaging of some imported frozen consignments tested positive for the coronavirus.

Even though China has the virus under control in the world's second-biggest economy, it's still treating the opening of its borders with extreme caution. After dozens of its citizens who arrived from Singapore tested positive for the virus, it suspended some flight routes from the city state and instituted more stringent requirements to enter.

China tamed the virus by shutting itself off from the world. Now it has to learn how to open itself up again. –Sharon Chen

Listen up

The Economy May Never Be the Same


The global economy could lose up to $22 trillion in 2020 alone due to Covid-19, according to Australian economist Warwick McKibbin. He predicts that successive waves of coronavirus infections will mean the world will continue to count the cost of the pandemic for years. McKibbin explains to Jason Gale that the pandemic will result in lasting changes to the way we work, live and interact.

Photographer: Patricia Suzara

Photographer: Patricia Suzara

 

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