On January 23, 2020, some eleven million Wuhan residents were placed in confinement because of a mysterious virus. One year later, as the world grapples with the pandemic, China officially displays figures to make pale: only a hundred contaminations per day and a total of 4,801 dead, which almost all go back to spring.
In Wuhan, life resumed its course, the mask on top of that. The streets are busy, as are the restaurants and nightclubs. A large exhibition tells about the mobilization heroic
of the people and of the Chinese Communist Party, which triumphed over the invisible enemy. And yet …
The inhabitants have just learned that their mayor, the hero
Zhou Xianwang, will leave, most likely sacked. As a symbol of the signs of worry that have been accumulating since the beginning of the year. However, it is no longer Wuhan (center) that is the focus of attention, but Hebei province, around Beijing (east). Twenty-three million inhabitants have been confined there for ten days after the resurgence of the virus in rural areas.
Doubting the discipline of the villagers, the authorities set up in a few days a huge quarantine center, made up of 3,000 modular dwellings, spread over the equivalent of forty-seven football fields. A radical method reminiscent of the emergency hospitals that emerged from the ground in Wuhan last year.
Another source of concern: in the suburbs of Beijing, some cases of the virus in its variant British
were detected, triggering the general alert. The screening of entire neighborhoods has already started, while all VTC customers are asked to scan a health QR code with their phone, in order to find their trace in case of infection. Thursday, January 21, a residential area in central Shanghai was also evacuated after the discovery of three cases, the first since November in the gigantic economic metropolis of the East Coast.
This resurgence of the disease on the eve of the Lunar New Year (February 12), during which the Chinese meet with family, gives an unpleasant feeling of déjà vu in 2020. Local authorities have already advised residents against returning to their native region, and a PCR test of less than seven days is required to travel.
The deposit goes badly with poor migrant workers and students who fear seeing themselves deprived of their families a second time. No matter the situation, this year I will come home to see my loved ones
, writes a surfer. The Ministry of Transport anticipates a 40% drop in travel during the holidays compared to a year normal
, but that still represents 1.7 billion trips!
However, it is too early to hope to see vaccination reduce the risks. Certainly, more than 15 million Chinese have already received an injection and they will be 50 million by the Lunar New Year. But to consider the start of collective immunity, it would take 840 million vaccinated …
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