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Agence France-Presse

As the coronavirus comes close to claiming its millionth life, people in Wuhan expressed sadness on Monday at the continuing global impact of the pandemic, more than nine months after it emerged in the city in central China.
Pride at the city’s resilience in the face of the calamity is tinged with sadness at the mounting death toll elsewhere.
“One million people dead, maybe relatively speaking in terms of the total global population, it’s not a lot,” said Hu Lingquan, a scientist and Wuhan resident.
“But these are actually all real people’s lives,” he said. “Every person has a family.”

On Monday, children clasped their parents’ hands as they navigated their way to school through rush-hour traffic in the nearly back-to-normal city.
As the global death toll nears 1 million – and with resistance to the threat of new lockdowns building from London and Madrid to Melbourne – China has been celebrating its emergence from the virus.
Here’s how the pandemic finally ends
The economy is bouncing back, with factories reopened and consumers returning to shops, and the epidemic has been smothered by months of strictly enforced blanket lockdowns and mass testing and contact tracing.


Wuhan, the central China city and where the first outbreak began, has flaunted its rebound with packed pool parties and bustling amusement parks.
But those optics have played badly across a world still struggling to control the virus spread and economic fallout, while demanding accountability from China for the causes of the outbreak.
The virus was felt sharply in the city of 11 million with 50,340 confirmed cases and 3,869 deaths, the most infections and fatalities in China.

But there have been no new cases in the city since May, and many in Wuhan now question the global response to a pandemic which China appears to have successfully stifled for now.
China can’t reopen while Covid-19 mortality rate remains high, expert says
Beijing has also stirred doubt into the Wuhan outbreak origin story, prodding outrage from worst-hit nations, led by United States President Donald Trump who refers to the disease as the “China virus”.
“From China’s point of view they’ve really done badly,” said scientist Hu. “Maybe they never really comprehended how serious this thing is.”


The World Health Organization warns the toll will keep rising until an effective vaccine is found and distributed globally.
“When the outbreak began, I didn’t imagine the death toll could be this high,” Wuhan resident Guo Jing said.
“It has exceeded a lot of people’s expectations, and it continues to rise.”


But in the city whose name is now synonymous with the virus, time has seen focus drift.
On Monday face masks hung from the chins of several pedestrians rather than covering mouths and noses, while shoppers thronged Wuhan’s commercial districts ahead of a holiday week.

“Wuhan has restarted,” An An, a media worker, said.
“Life has returned to the kind of flavour we had before. Everyone living in Wuhan feels at ease.”


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Coronavirus China

Coronavirus in China: rebound and reflection in Wuhan as global death toll nears 1 million

Passengers wearing face masks wait to board a last century-style boat, featuring a theatrical drama set between the 1920s and 1930s, in Wuhan on Sunday. Photo: AFP

This photo taken on September 26, 2020 shows people in a club in the city of Wuhan, in China’s central Hubei province. (Photo by Hector RETAMAL / AFP)

Women wearing face masks as a preventive measure against the Covid-19 coronavirus visit the Moshan Scenic Area near East Lake in Wuhan, in China’s central Hubei province on September 27, 2020. (Photo by Hector RETAMAL / AFP)

Passengers, wearing face masks amid as precautions against the COVID-19 coronavirus, ride the subway in Wuhan, in China’s central Hubei province on September 28, 2020. (Photo by Hector RETAMAL / AFP)

Coronavirus: students protest against China university lockdowns citing lack of virus cases, lack of consistency

Students attend the opening ceremony for academic year 2020-2021 at Peking University in Beijing, on September 20, 2020. Photo: Xinhua

(200913) -- SHANGHAI, Sept. 13, 2020 (Xinhua) -- A student (C) receives temperature check at a teaching building at the Minhang campus of East China Normal University in Shanghai, east China, Sept. 13, 2020. As the new school year starts, a total of nearly 6,000 new undergraduates and graduate students came to register at the Minhang campus of East China Normal University on Sunday. (Xinhua/Fang Zhe)

‘I can never be happy again’: grieving Wuhan families say China is blocking coronavirus lawsuits

Medical workers treat Covid-19 patient Zhang Lifa, father of Zhang Hai, on January 30 at a hospital in Wuhan. Zhang Hai has emerged as a vocal advocate and spokesman for families of virus victims. Photo: AFP/Zhang Hai

(FILES) This file photo taken on January 25, 2020 shows people wearing facemasks to help stop the spread of a deadly virus which began in the city, waiting for medical attention at Wuhan Red Cross Hospital in Wuhan. - Some families accuse the Wuhan and Hubei provincial governments of concealing the outbreak when it first emerged there late last year, failing to alert the public, and bungling the response, allowing Covid-19 to explode out of control. (Photo by HECTOR RETAMAL / AFP) / TO GO WITH: China virus rights families, FOCUS by Dan Martin

China filmmakers capture horror and humanity of Wuhan’s coronavirus lockdown

A man in full protective gear carries a box containing the ashes of a deceased person at a Wuhan funeral home during the lockdown. Photo: EPA-EFE

Protesters in major cities target coronavirus measures as global death toll approaches 1 million

People gather in Trafalgar Square in London to protest against the new lockdown imposed by the UK government. Photo: Reuters

19 September 2020, England, London: Police officers detain a woman during an anti-vaccine protest in Trafalgar Square. Photo: Yui Mok/PA Wire/dpa

Police detain an anti-lockdown protester in the Melbourne suburb of Elsternwick on September 19, 2020. - Melbourne continues to enforce strict lockdown measures to battle a second wave of the coronavirus. (Photo by William WEST / AFP)

News

China

People & Culture


As the pandemic rages on around the world, Wuhan appears to have moved on from the virus
Beijing has also sown doubt about Wuhan being the source of outbreak, provoking outrage from worst-hit nations, including the US



Beijing has also sown doubt about Wuhan being the source of outbreak, provoking outrage from worst-hit nations, including the US.


Coronavirus pandemic

Coronavirus pandemic: All stories

World Health Organization (WHO)