1 year since Wuhan locked down — how the first Covid-19 epicentre tackled the pandemic

The 76-day lockdown in Wuhan was imposed on 23 January 2020, two days before the Chinese New Year. While it tackled the virus spread, the approach received criticism too.

Wuhan during lockdown | Representational Image | Photo: Qilai Shen | Bloomberg

New Delhi: Exactly a year ago, Wuhan went into the first Covid-19-induced lockdown in the world as the Chinese province put around 11 million people under quarantine. While it was initially touted by many as a success story in handling the pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) has now criticised the Chinese response, noting that “public health measures could have been applied more forcefully”.

The lockdown — imposed on 23 January 2020, two days before the Chinese New Year celebrations were to begin — made face masks and social distancing mandatory in Wuhan. 

Life in the key industrial and commercial hub came to a halt as makeshift field hospitals were set up within days amid fear of the novel coronavirus, which is believed to have originated from a wet market in Wuhan in late 2019. Transport to and from the city were sealed off as well.

The lockdown lasted two and a half months, a measure many nations considered harsh but took themselves soon after.

One year on, while Chinese data shows these strict steps resulted in a lower caseload and death rate, many argue the government numbers are inaccurate. According to research by Wuhan University and Wuhan CMLabs, the province had 1,68,000 cases — a figure over three times the official figure released by the government.

Here’s a look at how events unfolded in Wuhan.

The Wuhan outbreak and its control

The WHO noted that the first ever Covid case was recorded in Wuhan in December 2019, but the specific date remains unknown.

When cases first broke out, little was known about the virus and residents were unable to grasp the severity, risk and health hazards of the situation. Since not enough precautions were taken in a timely manner, due to a lack of information at that time, the virus had spread rapidly in the population by January.

The three-pronged approach the Chinese authorities adopted in Wuhan was banning inter- and intra-state bus services, public gatherings and entertainment centres. While these measures did arrest the spread of the virus, its late implementation resulted in cases in other Chinese cities.

By February, Wuhan’s healthcare system had begun crumbling as hospitals were overloaded and cases were on the rise. This is when China began its isolation and monitoring phase, where through the “joint participation of government officials, doctors, health workers and volunteers”, tracing, testing and treatment was conducted at large scale.

The 3,000 branches of the Chinese Center for Disease Control, each with 100-150 staff members, were deployed to prepare meticulous case histories. Each contact tracing team had five-seven tracers, headed by a public health professional, and was given eight hours to finish tracing daily. 

Besides effective public communication, efforts at the grassroots through neighbourhood panels helped arrest the spread of Covid.

Volunteers were the backbone of China’s fight against the virus — from door-to-door delivery of food and garbage collection in infected areas to using “loudspeakers to persuade people to wash their hands and wear masks” in rural areas.

By mid-March, there was a shift to a more technology-dependent approach where apps were being used for “rapid detection of cases, for medical treatment as well as tracking potential carriers of the virus”.

The 76-day lockdown was lifted in Wuhan on 8 April as life slowly returned to normal. While public places such as shopping centres and offices were allowed to open, a strict vigil was maintained to ensure cases don’t rise again.

Whistleblowers ‘silenced’, journalists jailed 

China attributes its control of the Covid outbreak to strict lockdowns, large-scale testing and digital surveillance, but it has come under fire for controlling the spread of information.

Doctors had begun warning about a new pathogen in 2019, but such voices were “reprimanded and ordered to keep silent”. Dr Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist who began sounding the alarm about a new dangerous pathogen, was investigated by local authorities and died of the virus on 7 February.

Journalists reporting from Wuhan on coronavirus faced a clampdown, with no access to information about what was happening in the province. In December 2020, reporter Zhang Zhan was sentenced to four years in prison after being found guilty of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”.

The lockdown also impacted the Chinese economy severely as many lost their jobs and the country faced its slowest growth in four decades. 

However, China also recovered the fastest, being the sole major world economy to register growth in 2020. While its economy had declined by “6.8% year-over-year in the first three months”, by the fourth quarter, it returned to a “level of growth in line with pre-pandemic growth rates”.

Exhibitions, state-sponsored film now 

Today, the streets of Wuhan stand in stark contrast to this time last year as people throng markets and clubs. But the wet market remains barricaded even now.

However, interviews conducted by the BBC reveal a severe psychological toll on the residents owing to the lockdown. “The pandemic has certainly left something behind, even if it is not visible on the surface,” a resident, Han Meimei, told BBC Chinese.

Honouring their healthcare workers, Wuhan is now hosting exhibitions of “mannequins in personal protective equipment” and President Xi Jinping, propagating “a narrative of how the Communist Party contained COVID-19 in the city through the months-long lockdown”.

A state-sponsored film, Days and Nights in Wuhan, is also set to hit theatres with hundreds of free screenings planned.

A year on, China has recorded a total of 88,804 cases, 4,635 deaths and 82,495 recoveries. 

In the past few days, cases have been on the rise in the country’s northern region. An estimated 19 million people have been put under lockdown in Hebei, Jilin, Heilongjiang and Shijiazhuang. 

This surge comes at a time when a WHO team is visiting China to probe the origins of the virus — a “politically sensitive investigation” as many speculate that “Beijing might try to prevent embarrassing discoveries”.

However, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying has hit back, saying, “China was the first to sound the alarm for the world. In the face of an unknown virus, even though we didn’t have all the information, we made a resolute decision.”