[ad_1]
A year after China reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) the detection of a rare pneumonia in the city of Wuhan
, the city in the center of the Asian giant makes almost normal life and its residents prepare to leave their toughest year behind.
In the last hours of the year, a couple takes wedding photos in front of the Yantsé River while dozens of people take the ferry after work and, at night, a concert hall is packed with young people.
In the Luxiang neighborhood, where several faculties such as Science and Technology are located, about 300 people fill the Vox room to listen to a local group, Happy Wheel, which mixes rock and electronic music for the enjoyment of the spectators, most of them they teenagers and college students.
Some wear a mask, others decide not to wear it: “There are no cases in Wuhan, it is not necessary. But many people take it as a precaution, because if the virus has taught us something, it is that you cannot be trusted. In Wuhan we do not want to screw it up again”says Xue, one of the young people attending the concert.
Xue explains that a recent study by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in the Asian country, according to which 4.4% of Wuhan have coronavirus antibodies, reflects that, “taking into account that Wuhan has 11 million inhabitants, It would mean that half a million were infected. “
“That’s ten times the official figure. You can’t be trusted,” he says.
Tribute to the doctor who warned about the pandemic
“Wuhan!” Exclaims the singer at the beginning of the performance, which causes the ecstasy of the summoned masses. After a few minutes, people start dancing, jumping, and doing circles throughout the room.
The most emotional moment occurs when, at a given moment during the performance, a screen projects Chinese characters with the biography of Li Wenliang, the ophthalmologist who, just now a year ago, was reprimanded by the local police after alerting his colleagues that the hospital where he worked had a group of patients with symptoms of pneumonia similar to SARS, a disease that struck China in 2003.
Li was reprimanded for “spreading rumors” and forced to sign a letter acknowledging his “mistake”. Later, Li himself contracted the virus and died in early February, sparking a wave of tributes and criticism on Chinese social media for the actions of the authorities in trying to silence him.
The projection of his biography provokes the cheers of the public: “For the Wuhanese, especially the youngest, Li is a symbol because he dared to sound an alarm when the authorities did not know how to react. We will always remember him,” says one of attendees.
A year in hell
In Wuhan, where the pandemic that still plagues the world began, many are sad to remember how it affected the spread of COVID in its beginnings or the complete confinement of the city at the end of January that lasted for 11 weeks.
According to its inhabitants, it was the only possible measure to prevent COVID-19 from continuing to rage, but they do not forget the confusion of the first days, when there was hardly a supply of food and medical supplies.
“There were no masks, there was no food. You couldn’t buy it anywhere and all we had was anxiety. And fear. Of the virus, that the neighbor had it, that things were hidden from us. Everything, in short. It was extremely difficult at first, “says Miranda – a pseudonym – a Chinese English teacher.
Other residents like Chu Jing prefer to look ahead and emphasize that local authorities are already vaccinating against COVID-19, although at the moment only among groups considered at risk.
“It is available in some clinics in various districts. But not everyone can be vaccinated, only people between 18 and 59 years of the so-called risk groups, so my parents are not going to be able to get vaccinated at the moment, which is what I wanted, “he explains.
Although the city has not detected positive for local contagion since mid-May, Jing fears “imported cases”, that is, those arriving from abroad. In the past three months, 43 such cases, 10 confirmed and 33 asymptomatic, were detected in Wuhan.
Another Wuhan criticized, anonymously, the narrative put forward by the official press that the initial outbreak of the pandemic could have been related to frozen food imports or had arisen earlier in other countries: “I don’t believe anything. They want to divert the attention, nothing more “.
“It may be that the origin of the coronavirus is elsewhere, but that it began to spread massively in the Huanan market I have no doubt,” he says.
Meanwhile, residents welcomed 2021 with club parties and congregations in the parks of the central Hankou neighborhood around the banks of the Yangtze River.
Apart from the aforementioned confinement, Wuhan managed to reverse the situation thanks to the arrival of material and personnel from other Chinese provinces, strong preventive measures or the express construction of hospitals such as Leishenshan, which began receiving patients in February.
[ad_2]
