Wuhan has not returned to normal activities, despite packed music festival

• Thousands of partygoers attended a music festival in Wuhan, China, on Saturday, an event that seems to symbolize a return to normal life.
• But Wuhan locals say the city for the most part still maintains strict public health measures.
• Residents continue to wear masks and some businesses remain closed or work at half capacity.
• Visit the Business Insider website for more stories.

Mbali KaShongwe Gcabashe moved from South Africa to Wuhan, China, just six months before it became the source site of the coronavirus pandemic. She remained under strict lockdown with her three children for 76 days beginning in January.

Officials checked her temperature every time she left her apartment. After placing an online order, she was assigned a number indicating her turn to pick up packages outside her building. The streets were so empty, she said, she almost forgot the noise of the traffic.

For a while, Gcabashe was not allowed to leave her house at all.

“Even the elevators were deactivated,” she told Business Insider. “That was how intense our quarantine was. It was not quarantine like I have seen in most places where people are still free to move and go to certain places. Here, when it was locked up, that meant everything. was on lock. “

Wuhan officially lifted his lockdown on April 8. By that time, the city of 11 million had reported only three new infections in the previous 21 days. A month later, after six new cases surfaced in one weekend, Wuhan officials launched a massive campaign to test every resident. That effort revealed just 206 new infections – a clear indication that the outbreak was under control.

So when thousands of partygoers flocked to a music festival in Wuhan Maya Beach Water Park on Saturday, some locals were not alarmed.

“These are young people who have been tested on the regular in their communities, in their colleges, etcetera,” Gcabashe said. “If you asked me where I would feel safer between my own country in South Africa than in the US, I would still choose Wuhan.”

Gcabashe said Wuhan is now reaping the benefits of his rigorous three-month lockdown. On photos circulating on social media, the attendees of the music festival in the pool can be seen without wearing distance or masks.

“People can go and have some fun because you can not lock the city forever,” she said. “At some point, they will have to test to see if everyone is as healthy as they think.”

The city has not yet issued a caution against the wind. Local officials continue to enforce strict public health measures, including temperature checks, face masks, and the use of codes to indicate if residents are symptom-free.

Normal life is still on pause

For the most part, Gcabashe said, Wuhan did not return to normal.

The city still does not accept international flights. Healthy Chinese citizens need to install a “digital passport” on their smartphone, which allows them to access public transport or visit hotels and restaurants. Shopping malls have reopened and traffic has rarely returned, but gyms, libraries and museums only work at half capacity. Cinemas need masks and only 30% of the seats can be occupied. Bars and nightclubs remain closed.

“In the first half of the year, we only opened some projects that were planned for the outbreak,” Hu Zeyu, an employee at a local real estate company, told AFP. “Business volume has been greatly reduced.”

Only high school seniors have so far returned to school, though the city is poised to reopen all schools in September.

Gcabashe, who teaches 3rd through 5th grade at an international school in Wuhan, said she is familiar with the precautionary measures that schools have put in place, including temperature controls, mask wear, hand sanitization and better airflow in classes. . In China, she added, senior citizens often take their grandparents to school while parents are at work, so Wuhan does extra health checks on her elderly population.

“They are really working on this virus just to make sure everyone is comfortable enough and feels safe enough to send their children back to school,” she said.

Gcabashe added that she has been tested for the coronavirus three times. Her children have also been tested – and no one in her family has fallen ill so far. However, they are cautious about leaving their home.

The family waited for the mall for the first time last week. They bought tickets to an indoor bounce house, where staff sanitized the play area every 30 minutes. Gcabashe said she observed similar cleaning practices on escalators and trains throughout the city.

“The new normal is that everything is sanitized on a regular basis,” she said. “The cleaning is just more intense than it was before.”

Wuhan residents hope to avoid another lockdown

Unlike in the US, where efforts to limit capacity at restaurants and businesses and wear masking resistance have met with resistance, Gcabashe said the majority of Wuhan residents followed obedience to health protocols.

Occasionally, she added, she will see someone taking an evening walk without covering a face or wearing a mask over her, but masks are the overwhelming norm in her city.

Compare that to the US, where a Gallup poll in July found that 14% of respondents said they never wore face masks, and only 44% said they always wore a mask outside.

“What people need to understand about China is that if China has a bigger goal, individual comfort does not matter,” Gcabashe said. “Without that system, they would not be able to control over a billion people.”

Residents of Wuhan also want to avoid another lockdown. That they are careful to do everything possible to stimulate the spread of the virus, Gcabashe said.

She added that while some couples were quick to get married after the lockdown was lifted, others – including their own friends – have postponed their marriages.

“When we talk about possible freedom, we always refer to spring next year, because that’s when I think most of us will feel relatively comfortable after we’ve gone through the winter to see if the virus is really, really gone. is, “said Gcabashe. “Until then, we will still exercise some caution.”