As the UK continues to take drastic action to reduce the spread of coronavirus, China, the country where the disease originated, is slowly returning to normal.

Authorities in Hubei, the province where the COVID-19 outbreak started, announced they are lifting tight travel restrictions from Wednesday - providing people have a clean bill of health.

And in Wuhan, the provincial capital where the first coronavirus cases occurred, they are due to have their two-month lockdown lifted on 8 April.

Monday marked the first time in weeks people had been seen returning to China's streets after being locked up in their houses to try and curb the spread.

Photographs from Shanghai showed a couple posing for wedding photographs, while people in Beijing were seen enjoying walks in its many parks.

However, cities across China and nearby countries including Singapore and Taiwan, are now trying to prevent a second wave of cases as people travel back in.

Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and other major cities have imposed mandatory 14 day quarantines for all returnees, while Beijing will also require everyone arriving from overseas to be tested ahead of that from Wednesday.

So how did China get to this position?

What is the number of cases and deaths currently in China?

The number of reported cases in China has been decreasing since mid-February - and since 6 March, the number of newly infected is under 100, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.

On 22 March, there were 92 new cases of COVID-19, six deaths and 505 recoveries recorded in China.

Since the beginning of the outbreak, 81,553 people in China have caught the virus, 4% of them (3,281) died after contracting the disease, while 90% (73,277) have recovered in the country.

Italy has a total of 63,927 cases and nearly double the amount of reported deaths than China has reported, according to Johns Hopkins University.

While there are six people infected per 100,000 population in China, there are 98 per 100,000 in Italy.

The fatality rate in Italy is also higher than China's. While 4% of people in China died, 9.5% of those who contracted the virus have died in Italy, amounting to 6,077.

Just under 11% of those infected have recovered in Italy, which is 7,432 people. This percentage is far from the Chinese figure of 90%, but the outbreak in Italy started much later.

Italy passed 100 recorded cases on 23 February, just over three weeks from when the first case was reported on 31 January, while China reached this figure in mid-January.

The UK government has consistently warned the UK will face the same devastating figures as Italians if people do not abide by the social distancing rules, which are now being enforced through a lockdown.

What is the timeline of events in China and when did it go into lockdown?

On 31 December last year, the Chinese government announced the first cases of COVID-19, a strand of coronavirus.

It was believed to have originated in a food market in Wuhan, located in the central Chinese province of Hubei.

At the time, there was no evidence that the virus was readily spread by humans. Health officials in China said they were monitoring it to prevent the outbreak from developing into something more severe.

Eleven days later, the virus became deadly after a 61-year-old man, who had abdominal tumours and chronic liver disease, died after contracting the disease.

By 20 January, it had spread to major places such as Bejing and Shenzhen. On 23 January, Wuhan and other cities in Hubei were placed on lockdown.

How did they manage to tackle the disease?

China has been very stringent in its battle against the virus. It was praised in a report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for tackling the virus head-on after initially being criticised for suppressing information and downplaying the risk of the disease.

Measures used to combat the virus included building extra healthcare facilities to treat ill patients, using technology to help investigators tackle how the virus was spreading, where it was spreading to and making sure the travel restrictions were obeyed, as well as the closure of public areas.

Other efforts - recognised by the WHO report authors Dr Bruce Aylward and Dr Wannian Liang - included support from the community to those who were ill, extra hospital staff hired and supplies given, early clinical trials and reopening schools and offices again quickly to boost the economy.

Since then, it has cautiously been allowing different areas to return to normal once the number of cases slowly began subsiding.

Has China returned to normality?

Not entirely, but it is getting there.

Earlier this month, towns and cities surrounding Wuhan began gradually relaxing their rules around social isolation as the number of daily cases dropped and recoveries increased.

Sunday marked the local authorities allowing residents in Wuhan to return to work, provided they did not have a temperature, had been given the all-clear and a certificate from their employer.

The two-month lockdown is being lifted in Hubei province at midnight on Tuesday, with people allowed to leave the province provided they can prove they have a clean bill of health.

Officials said the travel restrictions on Wuhan will be lifted on 8 April

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-china-is-slowly-returning-to-normal-how-did-it-get-to-this-position-11962487

Pix

this is good, we should follow suite

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhMHYLV0dLk

Very funny video of a child explaining to his dad, the reason they were stopped from going to school because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Macsjebs my brother...
If u ask me, na who i go ask?
The bafflement is flagawhelming.

punisha:
Macsjebs my brother...
If u ask me, na who i go ask?
The bafflement is flagawhelming.

No be me go talk am, the matter wet we dey see so, heavy for mouth. Lol

dononics:
this is good, we should follow suite

Follow follow... Wetin u dey follow suit here Abeg? Is it the death that visited them in less than 2months u want to follow suit?

I pray our situation doesn't gets to this level.

I wish all coronavirus patients across the globe a very speedy recovery.