After 11 weeks of lockdown, the first train has departed from a re-opened Wuhan, the origin point for the coronavirus pandemic, as residents once again were allowed to travel in and out of the sprawling central Chinese city.
Wuhan's unprecedented lockdown served as a model for countries battling the coronavirus around the world.
With restrictions now lifted, Hubei's provincial capital embarks on another experiment: resuming business and ordinary life while seeking to keep the number of new cases down.
Passengers wearing protective suits to protect against the spread of coronavirus gather outside of Hankou train station. Source: AP
As of just after midnight on Wednesday, the city's 11 million residents are now permitted to leave without special authorisation as long as a mandatory smartphone application powered by a mix of data-tracking and government surveillance shows they are healthy and have not been in recent contact with anyone confirmed to have the virus.
It didn't take long for traffic to begin moving swiftly through the newly-reopened bridges, tunnels and highway toll booths, while hundreds waited for the first trains and flights out of the city, many hoping to return to jobs elsewhere.
Restrictions in the city where most of China's more than 82,000 virus cases and more than 3300 deaths were reported have been gradually relaxed in recent weeks as the number of new cases steadily declined. The latest government figures reported on Tuesday listed no new cases.
Wuhan, the original epicentre of the virus, has had its lockdown restrictions lifted. Source: AFP
While there are questions about the veracity of China's count, the unprecedented lockdown of Wuhan and its surrounding province of Hubei have been successful enough that countries around the world adopted similar measures.
During the 76-day lockdown, Wuhan residents had been allowed out of their homes only to buy food or attend to other tasks deemed absolutely necessary.
A passenger looks out of the window while the train from Xi'an to Guangzhou stops in Wuhan on April 8,2020 in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. Source: Getty Images AsiaPac
Residents of other parts of Hubei were allowed to leave the province starting about three weeks ago, as long as they could provide a clean bill of health.
