Time to end lockdown
Say people of Hubei province as several cities have not recorded any new infections
For days now, several cities at the heart of China's deadly coronavirus epidemic have not recorded any new infections -- so residents such as factory worker Tang Wushan have a message for the authorities: it's time to lift their quarantine.
Tang lives in central Hubei province, whose nearly 60 million residents have been under lockdown since late January as the government rushed to put a lid on a virus that first emerged in the regional capital, Wuhan.
He has not stepped out of his home in rural Xiangyang for more than 40 days.
"It's been too long," the 30-year-old told AFP over the phone, adding that he felt like he was "going to have a breakdown".
Yesterday, there were no new cases in the province for a third consecutive day except in Wuhan, which recorded 41 fresh infections. It is the first time that has happened since daily figures were released in January.
There have been no new cases in Xiangyang for 12 consecutive days.
Xianning city and Shennongjia Forest District have not had new confirmed patients for 15 straight days.
"There are some areas with no virus cases since the start of the outbreak. I think these areas could gradually reopen," Tang said.
The hashtag "When will Hubei be unblocked" has been read more than 100 million times on China's Twitter-like platform Weibo as of yesterday.
"This situation has messed up my plans," wrote one user. "Can't the province be inspected and people allowed out in batches?"
More than 3,000 people have died and over 80,600 have been infected in China.
The vast majority of deaths and cases have been in Wuhan, where health officials believe the virus first appeared in a market that sold wild animals before spreading around the world.
But the number of new cases has gradually fallen for weeks.
Following China's example, Italy plans to put large parts of the north of the country in lockdown to contain the spread of the new coronavirus.
"China and other countries are demonstrating that spread of the virus can be slowed or even reversed through the implementation of robust containment and control activities," the World Health Organization said Saturday as the global number of cases passed 100,000.