A stall in the Wuhan market in China.HECTOR RETAMAL / AFP
Zhao, a 33-year-old executive with an immaculate jacket and brush-cut hair, wears his mask tightly fitting as he walks down busy Han Street, one of Wuhan's most popular shopping areas, trying to choose where to dine from among a dozen restaurants. brighter.
Before speaking, he readjusts it again.
“I am a bit scared, that's why I wear the mask again and I try to disinfect my hands frequently,” he confesses, while giving a little tug on the gauze again to make sure that it has not dislodged.
The young executive refers to the covid outbreaks that have emerged in recent weeks in China and have raised infections in the country to more than a thousand.
It is a figure that has not been officially reached since the spring, and that has triggered the alerts among the Chinese authorities, which since summer had stressed over and over again the success of the country in the fight against the coronavirus.
The proximity of two key dates contributes to nervousness: Saturday will mark a year since this city of 11 million inhabitants, the original focus of the pandemic, was blocked for 76 days to prevent the spread of cases.
And on February 12 comes the lunar New Year, which under normal circumstances triggers the world's largest annual exodus, in which hundreds of millions of people travel to reunite with their families.
For many of the nearly 220 million Chinese migrant workers it is the only time a year to see their own.
In Wuhan, the concern over the dates is added to the presence - although, for now, serving two weeks of quarantine -
of the international team of the WHO that must investigate the origin of the coronavirus, between mutual accusations by Washington and Beijing.
Across the country, after months of calm, control measures against the pandemic have tightened again.
The vaccination campaign, which plans to inoculate 50 million people before the New Year, is accelerating.
This Monday, three million residents in two cities in northeast China were confined.
At least 11 regions in that area have imposed de facto isolations and carry out massive screening among their populations, after a "super contagion" has infected more than a hundred people in the Jilin province, bordering Russia.
Another 22 million people are also confined to Hebei province, which almost entirely surrounds Beijing, where most of the infections detected this month have been located.
This area has adopted some of the strictest control rules: its capital, Shijiazhuang, has imposed a perimeter blockade that prohibits its inhabitants from leaving the city.
In a move that reminds Wuhan of the worst times of the pandemic, that city has built a temporary hospital for covid patients with a capacity of 6,000 beds in five days.
Numerous traffic controls have been installed on the roads between Lanfang, the distribution center for wholesale supplies to Beijing, and the Chinese capital.
The vast majority of provincial authorities recommend that their residents avoid traveling for the lunar New Year if it is not essential.
In some cases, government agencies and companies offer compensation to employees who choose to stay at home.
Transportation companies offer refunds to travelers who cancel their plans.
By requesting PCR tests before traveling in some cases, the need to make use of tracking applications and temperature controls, travel has been made more annoying, another factor to deter those who do not need to move.
Trains that until just two weeks ago covered their routes full, without safety distances, now travel half empty.
"We are leaving many seats free to comply with security measures," explains a stewardess on one of the trains that covers the Beijing-Wuhan route.
The station in this city on the banks of the Yangtze, where some 50,000 people were officially infected between December 2019 and last May, has once again set up inspection posts in a remote area of its lobby for those arriving from areas considered at risk.
As in the weeks after lifting their blockade, health personnel dressed in protective suits are seen again.
The municipal government has asked that the meetings of more than ten people be canceled;
As a result, many companies, Zhao says, have canceled the annual conferences that under normal circumstances they would be holding now.
"Ladies and gentlemen, remember to protect yourself with a mask"
In the streets the difference is also palpable.
Until the end of December the mask had become an optional item and uncovered faces were becoming commonplace.
Now you don't see anyone on the street without a mask.
On Han Street, street speakers interrupt their still Christmas music from time to time to crush the same message: “Ladies and gentlemen, remember to wear a mask.
Wash your hands frequently.
Let the air flow with the windows open ... "
Zhao, the executive, has no plans to travel for the New Year.
Nor does he need it, his family lives in Wuhan.
But other office colleagues doubt whether to travel like other years, even if only to other locations in the same province to meet with other relatives.
"They are going to wait until the last moment to decide, to see if the situation clears up," he points out.
"We are not afraid, but we are a bit worried," say friends Li and Wang, 25, who under large scarves also protect their faces with masks on their shopping trip.
"If there have been so many cases in Hebei, it cannot be ruled out that some may also come here," they explain.
They also have no travel plans for the New Year.
The step back in the measurements, they say, is not annoying.
“You have to wear masks to avoid creating problems for other people, you have to stop traveling for the same reason.
This time we are not taken by surprise.
In Wuhan we have already gotten used to all this, more than anyone else in the world ”, they laugh.
"It's the new normal."
Information about the coronavirus
- Here you can follow the last hour on the evolution of the pandemic
- Restrictions search engine: What can I do in my municipality?
- This is how the coronavirus curve evolves in the world
- Download the tracking application for Spain
- Guide to action against the disease