Beautiful Virgin Islands

Tuesday, Jun 24, 2025

As coronavirus epidemic eases in China, life is slowly returning to normal

Workers are gradually getting back to their jobs, stranded Hubei residents are going home and at last there is some relief for medical staff on the front line. While other countries battle the pandemic, there are signs in mainland China that the worst is over

After nearly two months of lockdowns, strict quarantine rules and travel restrictions, life is slowly returning to normal in China as the coronavirus outbreak – which has infected more than 80,000 people and claimed more than 3,100 lives in the country – starts to wind down.

Workers are gradually returning to their jobs and there is at last relief for medical staff on the front line, as the number of new patients falls and the condition of others improves.

Schools, factories, public spaces and tourism destinations are starting to reopen. In northwestern Qinghai province, which mostly sits on the Tibetan plateau, China’s first batch of 144 high schools and secondary vocational schools reopened on Monday, while tourism sites in Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou provinces gradually resumed operations from this week.

The easing of some travel restrictions has also meant a homecoming for some residents of Hubei province – where the new coronavirus emerged – who have been stranded for weeks. One of them is Wu Haijian, who arrived home on Wednesday after a long drive from the southwestern province of Yunnan.

Every year, the 36-year-old beekeeper travels to Yunnan at the end of November to breed honey bees, returning in early March when the countryside surrounding his hometown is carpeted with yellow fields of rapeseed flowers.

But this year was different, as the province of nearly 60 million people was locked down at the end of January because of the new coronavirus.

Wu and his friends, who were also stuck in Yunnan, started calling the local authorities, asking to be allowed to return to Hubei from March 1.

“We made phone calls every day, so much so that they [local officials] did not pick up their phones when they saw our numbers,” he said.

Approval was finally granted on Monday and Wu – armed with a health certificate from Yunnan and an acceptance letter provided by the authorities in Hubei – set off in his truck loaded with more than 150 beehives that evening.

“I feel much better. Finally, I’m back home,” he said.

The delay cost him 30,000 yuan (US$4,300) as one-tenth of his bees were poisoned with pesticide – something he has avoided before by returning to Hubei when Yunnan’s farmers begin spraying their rapeseed fields.



Also on Wednesday, Wang Faji, a migrant worker in Guangzhou, took a bus to the southern metropolis from his hometown in Guizhou, a poverty-stricken area in southwest China.

The 26-year-old construction worker has been working away from his home village for the past four years, returning once a year for the Lunar New Year holiday and heading back to work 15 days later after Lantern Festival, the final day of the traditional new year celebrations.

This year, because of the coronavirus epidemic, Wang stayed at home for an extra month with nothing to do and no income. While there he did only two things – look up information about work in Guangzhou and the quarantine measures in his hometown, and chase his former boss for 4,800 yuan in unpaid salary owed to him from two years ago.

“The epidemic has affected my life but not severely. My only hope is to ask for my salary back,” he said.

Although he lost out on a month’s pay, he said it was “acceptable” and praised the government’s job in quickly controlling the spread of the virus. “I’m impressed by the government’s quick actions on this,” he said.

Meng Yuecui, 51, who has worked as a cleaner in Beijing for more than a decade, said people in the service industry, especially restaurant owners, had been “deeply affected” by the outbreak.

Meng said she was lucky enough to continue getting paid by her employer while quarantined in her hometown in the northern province of Hebei, waiting for the easing of restrictions and the notices that people could return to work.

Some of her friends in the cleaning industry were less fortunate and had lost their jobs during the weeks of quarantine, she said.
“In our industry, it’s very common to look for jobs frequently.”

Wang and Meng are among China’s 173 million migrant workers who relocate from rural areas to work in the larger cities. As an increasing number of cities – including some in Hubei – lift restrictions and allow some firms to resume work, local governments in China’s east coast manufacturing hubs have chartered buses, trains and flights to bring them back.

Despite measures to help migrant workers return to the reopening factories, about half of them had not yet done so, Wei Baigang, an official with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said on Tuesday.

Official data shows China’s factory activity contracted in February because of the outbreak. The official purchasing managers’ index for the manufacturing sector fell to a record low of 35.7 in February, down 14.3 points from January.

But there are encouraging signs that life is gradually returning to normal, at a time when other countries are implementing their own measures to try to contain the spread of the virus which has been labelled a pandemic by the World Health Organisation.
On Tuesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping made his first visit to Wuhan, Hubei’s capital, since the coronavirus outbreak began there more than two months ago. It was a signal that China has largely won the fight against the epidemic.



On Wednesday, the Hubei government issued a notice asking companies to resume operations in an orderly manner, although residents are still restricted from leaving the province. Hubei has been divided into three categories – with regions classified as high, middle and low risk.

Companies in low-risk regions can gradually resume business, while in high-risk areas, companies involved in epidemic prevention and control, public services and supply of daily necessities are allowed to reopen.

For the medical staff who have been fighting the virus in Wuhan, these are welcome signs that the day they can return to their own homes is approaching.

Tian Xi, 33, a volunteer with the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation in Beijing, went to Wuhan on the first day of the Lunar New Year – two days after the city went into lockdown.

He has been helping organisations deliver medical supplies to hospitals – five times a day during the peak of the epidemic – as well as sending patients and doctors to hospitals and delivering masks to residents. In the past weeks he has seen despairing people jump from a bridge in front of him and dead patients lying for hours in hospitals, with no one to handle them.

“The situation in the past week has obviously been better as we have received fewer requests for help,” Tian said. “Now the battle has gone to the second half and I hope it can end soon.”

Mary Li, a 32-year-old nurse from Nanjing, capital city of eastern China’s Jiangsu province, has been working in Wuhan for almost a month. She and her colleagues take care of 70 beds in the Wuhan No 1 Hospital, changing shifts every four hours.

Before going into the intensive care units, they have put on full protective gear – hats, masks, goggles and covers for their shoes. For the first few days, they had trouble breathing and the masks carved deep cuts into their faces.

But things are getting better. As of Tuesday, 32 patients had been discharged from Li’s hospital, while some critically ill patients no longer needed ventilators and their appetites were improving.

“When they are discharged, it’s closer to the time for us to finally return home,” she said.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Germany and Italy Under Pressure to Repatriate $245bn of Gold from US Vaults
Airlines Evaluate Flight Cancellations Amid Escalating US-Iran Tensions
Starmer Invites Innovators to Join Government Talent Scheme
UK Economy’s Strong Opening Quarter Shows Signs of Cooling
Harrods Seeks Court Order to Secure Al Fayed Estate for Victims
BA and Singapore Airlines Cancel Dubai Flights Amid Middle East Tensions
Trump Faces Backlash from MAGA Base Over Iran Strikes
Meta Bets $14 B on Alexandr Wang to Drive AI Ambitions
WATCH: Israeli forces show the aftermath of a massive airstrike at Iran's Isfahan nuclear site
FedEx Founder Fred Smith, ‘Heart and Soul’ of the Company, Dies at 80
Chinese Factories Shift Away from U.S. Amid Trump‑Era Tariffs
Pimco Seizes Opportunity in Japan’s Dislocated Bond Market
Labubu Doll Drives Pop Mart to Status as China’s Most Valuable Toy Maker
Global Coal Demand Defies Paris Accord Goals
We have new information and breaking details to share about what is shaping up to be a historic air campaign tonight
Six Massive Bombs Dropped on Fordow; Trump: 'A Historic Moment for the U.S., Israel, and the World'
Fordow: Deeply Buried Iranian Enrichment Site in U.S.–Israel Crosshairs
United States Conducts Precision Strikes on Iran’s Nuclear Sites
US strikes Iran nuclear sites, Trump says
Pakistan to nominate Trump for Nobel Peace Prize.
BBC Demands Perplexity AI Immediately Stop Using Its Content
Telegram Founder: I Will Leave My Fortune to Over 100 of My Children
Political Turmoil Resurfaces in Belgium Amid Economic Concerns
Fed policymakers divided on timing of interest rate cuts
Trump signals imminent agreement with Harvard University
Inheritance tax referendum alarms Swiss billionaire community
Japan cancels bilateral security meeting amid US defence demands
AI skeptic Emily Bender warns that ‘the emperor has no clothes’
Israel Confirms Assassination of Quds Force Commander in Tehran
16 Billion Login Credentials Leaked in Unprecedented Cybersecurity Breach
Senate hearing on who was 'really running' Biden White House kicks off
Iranian Military Officers Reportedly Seek Contact with Reza Pahlavi, Signal Intent to Defect
FBI and Senate Investigate Allegations of Chinese Plot to Influence the 2020 Election in Biden’s Favor Using Fake U.S. Driver’s Licenses
Vietnam Emerges as Luxury Yacht Destination for Ultra‑Rich
Plans to Sell Dutch Embassy in Bangkok Face Local Opposition
China's Iranian Oil Imports Face Disruption Amid Escalating Middle East Tensions
Trump's $5 Million 'Trump Card' Visa Program Draws Nearly 70,000 Applicants
DGCA Finds No Major Safety Concerns in Air India's Boeing 787 Fleet
Airlines Reroute Flights Amid Expanding Middle East Conflict Zones
Elon Musk's xAI Seeks $9.3 Billion in Funding Amid AI Expansion
Trump Demands Iran's Unconditional Surrender Amid Escalating Conflict
Israeli Airstrike Targets Iranian State TV in Central Tehran
President Trump is leaving the G7 summit early and has ordered the National Security Council to the Situation Room
Taiwan Imposes Export Ban on Chips to Huawei and SMIC
Israel has just announced plans to strike Tehran again, and in response, Trump has urged people to evacuate
Netanyahu Signals Potential Regime Change in Iran
Juncker Criticizes EU Inaction on Trump Tariffs
EU Proposes Ban on New Russian Gas Contracts
Analysts Warn Iran May Resort to Unconventional Warfare
Iranian Regime Faces Existential Threat Amid Conflict
×