Wuhan Reports First COVID-19 Cluster After Being Out of the Woods for a Month

Oh no.

It’s happening again.

After lifting its lockdown a month ago, Wuhan, the Chinese city where Covid-19 first emerged, just reported a new cluster of coronavirus infections.

The coronavirus, it seems, has made a comeback.

Five New Confirmed Cases

Yesterday (11 May), Wuhan reported five new confirmed cases, all from the same residential compound.

This new Covid-19 cluster could not have come at a worse time, as restrictions all over China are being eased; businesses are restarting and people are going back to work.

According to Worldometers, China hasn’t had a new Covid-19 case since 16 April, whereas they were reporting thousands of new cases every day in February.

But these low numbers may not tell the full story.

Do Not Take Asymptomatic Cases Into Account

According to CNA, China does not include asymptomatic cases in its overall tally of confirmed cases, now at 82,918, until they exhibit signs of infection.

So even if you test positive for the disease, you won’t be counted as a confirmed case unless you exhibit symptoms.

Because of this, the number of asymptomatic cases in the country is not known. Patients who are asymptomatic are being monitored, however.

In the month since the lockdown was lifted, Wuhan has conducted an average of 47,000 nucleic acid tests each day.

An internal document seen by Reuters shows that testing will be focused on older and densely populated residential compounds and those with a concentration of migrant populations.

Infections “Continuing to Increase”

Alarmingly, Mi Feng, spokesman for China’s National Health Commission, said that new infections in seven provinces were being traced and that Covid-19 clusters are on the rise.

“In the past 14 days, seven provinces have reported new locally transmitted cases, with cases involving clusters continuing to increase,” Mi told a media briefing.

“We need to investigate and determine the origin of the infections and transmission routes.”

New Lockdown In Shulan

After over 70 days with no new local Covid-19 cases, Shulan, a city in the northeastern province of Jilin, reported three additional cases.

The city has been marked a high-risk area, the only place in China now with that designation, reported CNA.

Due to the new cases, the Shulan authorities imposed a lockdown on its 600,000 residents since the weekend, with only one member of each household being allowed to go out to buy necessities.

Reopening of Venues

According to Al Jazeera, this new wave of infections in Wuhan comes just days after the government announced that cinemas, museums, and other venues would gradually be reopened.

There will, however, be restrictions including mandatory reservations and a limit on the number of visitors in place.

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In Shanghai, some nightspots and even its Disneyland park were reopened on Monday to a reduced number of visitors.

However, with precautionary measures like temperature checks and social distancing in place, the authorities are confident that these venues are safe to reopen.

“Right now here in China and the COVID epidemic conditions are such that we feel with the right measures in place, as far as health and safety goes, that we are able to open successfully here,” Andrew Bolstein, of Shanghai Disney, told Al Jazeera.

A Warning

China’s new wave of infections should serve as a warning to other countries easing restrictions.

Many of us in Singapore are impatient for the circuit breaker to end, but what if ending it too early causes infections to spike again?

Even when things go back to “normal”, it won’t be like it was before.

Everyone will have to practise safe distancing, wear masks, and refrain from visiting crowded areas. Office work would no longer be the same as you’d have to follow certain guidelines which you can read all about here.

This virus, unfortunately, is not an easy enemy to defeat. Many countries have won several battles with the disease, but as China’s new infections show, we’ve yet to win the war.

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