Tens of thousands of people, some in full protective gear, poured out of Wuhan on Wednesday, thronging the city’s airport, railway stations and highways as authorities lifted an 11-week lockdown of the coronavirus pandemic’s initial epicenter, reported the Wall Street Journal.
At the drop of midnight on Wednesday morning, Chinese authorities began allowing people who can prove they are healthy to enter and leave Wuhan, and relaxed restrictions on many local businesses, in an effort to resuscitate a local economy devastated by the disease.
Millions of others in Wuhan, however, remained under effective lockdown in their homes after the city government said residential restrictions would remain in place—in part because of the recent discovery of dozens of asymptomatic cases in the city.