A year on, Wuhan returns to normal

A man sells balloons outside a shopping mall in Wuhan, China’s central Hubei province. Pic/AFP

A year ago, a notice sent to smartphones in Wuhan at 2 am announced the world's first Coronavirus lockdown that would last 76 days.

Early on Saturday morning, residents in the central Chinese city, where the virus was first detected were jogging and practising tai chi in a fog-shrouded park beside the mighty Yangtze River.

Life has largely returned to normal in the city of 11 million, even as the rest of the world grapples with the spread of the virus' more contagious variants.

Traffic was light in Wuhan but there was no sign of the barriers that a year ago isolated neighbourhoods, prevented movement around the city and confined people to their apartments. Wuhan accounted for the bulk of China's 4,635 deaths from COVID-19.