MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th April, 2020) When Lori Liu, her husband and her new-born baby arrived in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province on Jan 20, the family of three only planned to visit her relatives in the city for about a week and return to her hometown of Huizhou, located about 620 miles to the south in Guangdong province.
"I had no idea how serious the epidemic situation was in Wuhan when I came here," Liu, 26, told Sputnik during an interview on Friday.
After a cluster of patients exhibiting pneumonia-like symptoms emerged in Wuhan in late December last year, Chinese authorities waited until Jan 20 to first publicly address the seriousness of what turned out to be the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and introduced a complete lockdown of the city from Jan 23.
As of Thursday, Wuhan has reported 50,008 confirmed cases with 2,575 fatalities.
After Liu and eight other family members cramped in her relative's apartment in Wuhan for 80 days, her family of three were finally able to leave the world's first COVID-19 epicenter on Thursday morning, one day after Chinese authorities lifted the city's lockdown on Wednesday.
Even after the strict lockdown measures in Wuhan were lifted by Wednesday, many people like Liu, who were trapped in the city during the lockdown, continued to face all kinds of hurdles on their way to get back home.
According to Liu, she had to apply for a health code from local authorities in both Hubei province and Guangdong province. As part of China's efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19, local authorities began to issue health codes to residents based on their proximity to confirmed cases. Those who did not have close contact with COVID-19 patients would receive a green health code, which would allow them to travel between different cities.
However, although the central government in Beijing encouraged local authorities to allow people returning from Wuhan with a green health code to return home without additional quarantine measures. Many cities decided to take additional precautions when accepting people who were trapped in Wuhan like Liu.
"We planned to leave on Wednesday morning. But local authorities in my hometown told us to obtain a COVID-19 test result in Wuhan before arrival. That's why we spent all of Wednesday getting the test done and could finally begin our return trip on Thursday morning," she said.
In addition, Liu and her family were not allowed to return to their home after arriving in her hometown of Huizhou.
"When our car arrived at the exit on the highway, there were already local healthcare personnel waiting for us. They took us directly to a designated quarantine center. We would only be allowed to go home, after completing two more rounds of COVID-19 tests that show negative results," she said.
Liu added that local authorities in Huizhou even had trouble securing the location for the designated quarantine center for people returning from Wuhan.
"We couldn't check into the first quarantine center after local villagers protested. Local authorities had to find a new location for us. That's why by the time we settled in the quarantine center, it was already 10pm at night [on Thursday]," she said.
Liu and her family drove for about 12 hours on Thursday before arriving in Huizhou from Wuhan.
Other Chinese cities introduce similar restrictions for people returning from Wuhan. For example, in addition to the requirement of COVID-19 test results, local authorities in Beijing also asked people returning from Wuhan to apply for a permission through a designated service on their smartphone. Only those who obtained approval through the service would be allowed to buy a train ticket to travel from Wuhan to Beijing.
Local authorities in Beijing has capped the number of people who are allowed to return to the city from Wuhan at 1,000 per day, Chen Pei, the city's deputy secretary general, said during a press conference on Thursday.
While many people like Liu and her family got trapped in Wuhan during the lockdown, a large number of local residents from the city were stuck in other cities during the same period.
Ruby Pan, her husband and her 10-year-old son happened to be traveling in Jiangsu province, located about 330 miles to the east, when Wuhan was placed under lockdown in late January.
"We only planned to stay in Jiangsu for about two weeks when we left Wuhan on Jan 18. But we were forced to stay in Jiangsu for more than two months," Pan, 40, told Sputnik during an interview on Thursday.
Because Pan and her family came from Wuhan, they faced strident quarantine during their stay in Jiangsu province.
"We were first required to be quarantined for 14 days [after arriving in Jiangsu from Wuhan]. But then all the cities in China introduced strict quarantine measures. That's why we basically couldn't really go out when we were in Jiangsu," she said.
After the lockdown of Wuhan was lifted on Wednesday, Pan and her family took a train and were finally able to return home on Thursday. But as Pan and her family were returning to Wuhan, they faced much less scrutiny compared to Liu's family.
"We applied for the health code from Hubei province. But we were not checked either in Jiangsu or in Wuhan. And we didn't have to obtain a COVID-19 test result. We will stay home for 14 days in Wuhan only because my husband's office asked us to do this. The local community in Wuhan only advised that we stay home in the near future," Pan said.
When Liu and her family were strained in Wuhan, the residential compound they lived in was under complete lockdown from early February to the end of March.
"We only were allowed to move outside the residential compound from the end of March. And we still had to present a health code and get our temperature measured each time we move in and out. There were not a lot of food in the beginning and the prices went up by almost 50 percent, which was untestable. But it became better later on, when more food became available thanks to assistance from volunteers," she said.
What worried Liu most was when her baby, who was only a few months old, became sick during that period.
"When my baby became sick, I was so afraid to take him to the hospital because I worried that he would be infected. I only tried to consult with doctors online and bought medicine for him. We finally decided to take him to the hospital by the end of March, when the epidemic became less serious," she said.
As Liu is still a graduate student and her husband was also trapped in Wuhan with her, her family did not have any income during the more than two months when they could not leave the city.
Fortunately for Pan, who could not return to Wuhan, her husband and her are both middle school teachers who could continue to work by offering online classes to their students.
Nevertheless, because of the strict quarantine measures in Jiangsu province, Pan's son, who was in third grade, could only do physical exercises by jumping ropes in the hallway of the building where the family was staying.
For Liu and Pan, they both were happy that they could finally return home after the lockdown in Wuhan was lifted on Wednesday.
