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Wuhan puts on its dancing shoes and comes back to post-COVID life

Still a shadow of its former self, Wuhan began to bustle once more in May.

Still a shadow of its former self, Wuhan began to bustle once more in May. Photo: AP

Wearing masks and keeping about a metre apart, Wuhan revellers are dancing once again in the city where the COVID-19 pandemic was born.

Wuhan’s 76-day lockdown ended on April 8, and the city is slowly getting back on its feet, hopeful that the worst has passed, but worried by the emergence last week of a few fresh cases on the virus.

While most large indoor gatherings remain banned, residents are reclaiming their daily lives and hobbies, which in many parts of China includes “square dancing”, or mass dances, usually in the evenings in public squares, plazas or parks.

On Saturday night, more than a hundred masked people danced on an open-air riverside walkway in central Wuhan as loudspeakers blared out everything from electronic dance music to Japanese pop.

 

Some waltzed in pairs. Others moved in sync to choreographed dance routines. All wore masks, and mostly kept apart.

“It’s quite hard to breathe when wearing this mask to dance and you can’t get rid of the perspiration, but my mood is great, we can finally gather,” said Zhang Jing, 42, adding that she had rejoined her dancing group at the start of May.

Still, worries about the virus linger.

“I do still feel a little constrained, (dancing) doesn’t feel as free with a mask, and I am a little afraid that there could be cross infection,” said Fang Yuanyuan, 50.

COVID-19 first struck Wuhan late last year, and it became the epicentre of China’s outbreak, accounting for about 80 per cent of the country’s coronavirus cases, but the strict lockdown helped stifle new infections, allowing curbs on movement to be relaxed.

Last week, however, the city reported its first cluster of new infections since the lockdown was lifted, stoking fears of a second wave, and prompting authorities to launch a campaign to test all 11 million residents for the coronavirus.

Mainland China reported five new confirmed COVID-19 cases for May 16, down from eight the previous day, the National Health Commission (NHC) said in a statement on Sunday.

– AAP

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