Wuhan's wet and wild weekend after months of zero local cases of COVID-19

The scene this weekend in Wuhan, the Chinese city of 11 million people and the first to go into lockdown due to the coronavirus disease, was wet and wild.

According to BBC News , thousands of people flocked to celebrate at a music festival, packing the Wuhan Maya Beach Water Park shoulder to shoulder and with no face masks in sight.

The images of the cheering crowds merrymaking on rubber floats are a stark contrast to what was seen in the city in January, after COVID-19 first emerged in late 2019.

Recently, though, Wuhan’s coronavirus cases have been low with no domestically transmitted cases in Wuhan or the surrounding Hubei province since mid-May.

-A slow bounce back-

When lockdown first went into effect on January 23, the streets of Wuhan were empty, devoid of residents and vehicles. At the time, just one week after China had confirmed that human-to-human transmission had occurred, the virus had affected more than 400 people and resulted in 17 deaths. Cut off from the rest of China, the city began testing in the thousands and placing its citizens under quarantine. Gatherings were discouraged and all large public events and gatherings cancelled.

Slowly, during March, the lockdown was allowed to ease. One person from each household was allowed to leave the home for up to two hours. Slowly people began to head out as shopping centres re-opened, public transit routes resumed service, though masks were mandatory and social distancing rules applied.

Wuhan’s lockdown was officially lifted on April 8. Schools re-opened, businesses slowly ramped back up, public transport resumed and couples jumped at the chance to get married.

It seemed, for a spell, that regular life could resume.


On May 12, however, six new cases of coronavirus were recorded. City officials jumped into action, putting ambitious plans in place to test all 11 million city residents, quickly bringing the outbreak under control.

In June, Wuhan’s bustling night markets — compact street stalls selling goods along streets and laneways — were re-opened and during the following month most places saw cinemas, certain parks, libraries, and museums come back to life, albeit at half capacity.

Looking at these images from August’s HOHA Water Electrical Musical Festival, life appears to have edged its way back to normal in Wuhan. Female tourists were even offered entry fees at half price in a bid to increase visitors.

The theme park that owns the Maya Water Park, Wuhan Happy Valley, had re-opened on June 25 but it was only in August that visitors began to flock to the attraction. Currently, it receives around 15,000 people on weekends, around half of the number of people compared to this time last year, according to the park’s deputy general manager.

Some commenters on Chinese social media expressed concern and shock that such a large-scale event was allowed to take place. There were also comments registering surprise on Twitter and Facebook.

But there are no bans in Wuhan on large social gatherings and there have been no local coronavirus cases in the city since mid-May. So far about 9.9 million people have been tested for the virus.

However, despite a large swath of the city’s population having been tested, the virus could still be introduced from an external source, said Sanjaya Senanayake, an associate professor in infectious diseases at the Australian National University. “The problem is we haven’t eradicated COVID-19, and what that means is that as long as it’s not eradicated, there’s still the risk of having it introduced, whether from overseas or elsewhere,” he said in an interview with the BBC .

Senanayake points to New Zealand, which for more than three months had no locally transmitted cases of the coronavirus until last week, when a new spike in cases appeared.

“A study from London came out suggesting that about 10-20% of people with COVID-19 are responsible for about 80% of cases,” he said.
“So if you’re putting large groups of people together you really have to be careful. Even if one person has the virus, you’re in for some rough times.”

The virus, meanwhile, continues its course around the world, with 21 million cases reported worldwide. Many countries who had seemed to successfully contain the virus, like South Korea, are now experiencing a new wave of cases.

It may be a long time yet before other countries allow large gatherings to take occur.