Wuhan eyes no new infections by the end of this week

Wuhan reported only one new case of coronavirus as of Monday, March 16, after seeing six
consecutive days of single-digit new cases, with top Chinese epidemiologists expecting the new
infections in the city to be cleared around the end of the week.
Meanwhile, the city continues defending against the coronavirus by requiring all overseas arrivals
to Wuhan to undergo a 14-day quarantine at designated places starting on Tuesday, March 17.
Given the city’s prospects of clearing the new cases within the border, and strict measures to ward
off imported infection risks, Wuhan was described by netizens as the “safest place” in the world
against the virus.
Starting Tuesday, all overseas visitors and returning nationals to Wuhan will be sent to designated
places for a 14-day quarantine, with expenses covered by themselves, according to a notification
the Wuhan epidemic prevention and control group issued on Tuesday.
The city is expected to ease the epidemic down to zero new infections around March 20, said Li
Lanjuan, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and expert with the National Health
Commission, in an interview with Chinanews on Monday.
This expected date sounds sooner than the one Li noted a week ago, when she said Wuhan would
reach zero new infections by the end of March.
The promise of zero new infections in Wuhan, the city hit hardest by the coronavirus, seems to
bring hope to Chinese netizens.
“After going through a painful and tough war against COVID-19, Wuhan has now built an iron
wall to guard against potential risks from the outside, with its battle-hardened people inside
making efforts to curb the epidemic, which makes the city the safest place in the world,” some
netizens commented.
“Wuhan has the best medical resources; its people know more than anybody else about how to
prevent and control the epidemic after so many lessons with sweat and tears. The government is
now imposing strict measures to protect people from imported viral risks… I cannot think of any
place in the world that is safer than Wuhan now, even though it was once the most-stricken area,”
wrote a Wuhan-based netizen on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter-like social media.
“The most dangerous place has turned into the safest place” was another typical comment on
Wuhan’s current situation on Sina Weibo.
Despite the optimism of some people, experts maintained a cautious tone by saying it is too soon
to jump to the conclusion that Wuhan is safe now.
“The city is still under lockdown with thousands of patients in treatment. There is still a long way
to go before reaching the‘safe’ level,” Yang Zhanqiu, deputy director of the Pathogen Biology
Department at Wuhan University, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
“Shifting from passive to active, Wuhan’s current anti-epidemic situation looks more like a
temporary victory. But whether the victory will last, we need more time and efforts to achieve that
result,” Yang said.