Coronavirus: Wuhan eases lockdown then U-turns 3 hours later, while China’s daily deaths rise 55 per cent
- Three most senior Communist Party leaders in southwestern city of Dali sacked for intercepting masks being delivered to Chongqing
- Guangdong, the second worst-hit province, downgrades its alert, as data suggests the outbreak is being largely contained outside the Hubei province epicentre
All but one of the new deaths were in Hubei province, the outbreak’s epicentre, which accounted for 398 of the 409 new cases. The other death was in the southern island province of Hainan.
Sunday’s figures, released on Monday, showed that 1,846 more people had been discharged from hospital, taking that total to 24,734.
Wuhan U-turn over lockdown
Authorities in Wuhan, Hubei’s provincial capital, on Monday revoked their announcement of an easing of the city’s lockdown measures – barely three hours after the notice was issued.
The government said the now-retracted notice had been issued by a subordinate working group of the city’s disease control command without their superiors’ approval, China News Service reported. The disease control command said it would reprimand the officials who issued the order without approval.
Extreme lockdown measures have been in place since January 23, with all residential quarters quarantined and roads and transport links closed.
The retracted order would have allowed non-residents who showed no symptoms and had no contact with infected patients to leave the city. It had also said locals deemed essential for disease control or the city’s daily operation – including delivery of utilities and other necessities – along with those who needed specialist medical treatment outside Wuhan, could leave with permission.
It had not been clear whether Hong Kong residents or foreign nationals were allowed to exit under the now-retracted order, which appeared to apply only to Chinese citizens. An estimated 2,000 Hongkongers are stuck in Hubei province, including those in Wuhan.