Wuhan marks a year since Covid lockdown as others scramble

WUHAN (AFP):The Chinese city of Wuhan marked one year since the start of its traumatic 76-day coronavirus lockdown Saturday, while the pandemic raged elsewhere and governments scrambled to put in place new measures.

Europe faced a worsening struggle with production woes hitting supply of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine as well as the Pfizer/BioNTech shot.

Around the world, more than 2.1 million people have died of Covid-19 since it emerged in China in December 2019, with over 98 million infected.

In the world’s worst-hit country, US President Joe Biden warned America’s death toll could pass 600,000, the highest estimate yet that would mark a devastating rise on the 400,000 fatalities so far.

But the picture was vastly different in Wuhan, where humming traffic, bustling sidewalks, and citizens packing parks and public transport underscored the scale of the recovery in the metropolis of 11 million where the pathogen first emerged before going global.

“I think Wuhan is quite safe now, safer than my hometown and most places in China,” 21-year-old resident Wang Yizhe said.