[imagesource: Reuters / Aly Song]

After months of empty streets and isolation, Wuhan has eased up on its lockdown, and citizens are free to leave their homes again.

The city where it all started is celebrating a sense of overwhelming relief that the worst of the pandemic is behind them. It wasn’t without its casualties, though, and there’s still some hostility towards the government and its handling of the situation.

China was hit hard by the virus with nearly 83 000 reported infections and well over 3 300 deaths.

Some citizens told The Telegraph, that those numbers might not be accurate. The hospitals were overwhelmed, multiple revisions to the number of cases were reported, and whistleblowers were silenced.

“Ordinary people like us will never know the truth,” Long Menglei, 30, whose mother-in-law was severely ill with the virus for weeks.

On Tuesday, China said there were zero new deaths for the first time since health officials began reporting nationwide data in late January.

…Families who lost loved ones to what doctors strongly hinted was the coronavirus, but were never tested, weren’t included in the official death tally.

Mr Long goes on to point out that if the Chinese government had paid more attention to the virus from the start, it would never have developed into the crisis that it was for Wuhan.

To further emphasise the alleged false reporting on deaths and infections, crematoriums noted a significant increase in work.

At the peak, there were 5,000 bodies waiting for urgent cremation at one of Wuhan’s eight crematoriums, a worker told The Telegraph – a far cry from about two dozen per day before the virus outbreak. His shifts, which began at 5:30am, would end after dark.

“I’m not clear about the total figures,” he said, declining to be named given sensitivity over the issue. “Probably only some hospitals and the funeral affairs bureau know the real infection rates.”

The lockdown helped with the spread of misinformation because when people aren’t able to leave their homes, it’s difficult to get a handle on things.

The government also downplayed the crisis in the beginning which led to complacency on the part of its people, who didn’t initially perceive COVID-19 as a significant threat.

BBC China’s Meiqing Guan offered this warning to the rest of the world about handling the virus:

Wuhan celebrated the end of the lockdown with a light show over the Yangtze River:

Citizens are still taking precautions as they re-enter society:

Despite easing up on the lockdown, people are still terrified that there could be a second wave of COVID-19 infections.

Preventative measures such as wearing masks, temperature checks and limited access to residential communities will stay in place for the foreseeable future.

[source:telegraph]