Chinese man wore a mask while jogging and went to hospital

Four months after the first cases of coronavirus were recorded and three months after total quarantine was declared in Wuhan, the Chinese authorities changed the status of the city from closed to open to the public. However, the metropolis, apparently, it will take more time for the city to return to normal life - consumer activity is at zero, and there will probably be no foreign investors for several more years.

 

In Wuhan, a Chinese metropolis with a population of 12 million people, where coronavirus cases were first recorded in December 2019, quarantine is officially canceled on Wednesday, April 8. Trains will start to run from the city and it will be possible to fly by plane, intercity automobile communication will be restored. But this will not mean a return to normal, Bloomberg reports.

 

Despite the fact that now the number of new infections per day does not exceed 30 compared to several thousand in February, the shock from the epidemic still persists, and the fear of the second wave does not allow businesses to resume work at “pre-virus” levels. Fears are fueled by the fact that cases of infection in people who do not have symptoms of the disease are still being detected in the city. It is such asymptomatic cases that played a huge role in the spread of the epidemic. “Silent carriers,” up to a third of those whose tests tested positive for coronavirus, wrote the South China Morning Post in late March, citing Chinese government data. At the same time, Chinese doctors claim that an asymptomatic patient can infect a maximum of one person.

 

"Before and after"

 

Wuhan is the center of one of the most important industrial regions of China, Hubei Province. Before the outbreak, the provincial GDP was expected to grow by 7.5–7.8% in 2020. The city’s attractiveness for doing business has grown rapidly - according to the report of the Milken Institute for 2019, Wuhan ranked 9th in terms of aggregate economic indicators among all Chinese cities, rising seven lines in a year. Business in the city ranged from biomedicine and chip manufacturing to auto parts. Coronavirus delivered a painful blow to all of this.

 

In February alone, Hubei’s domestic regional product fell by at least 50%, and budget lost about $ 1 billion, estimates Chen Bo, an economics professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan.

 

New life

 

Shopping centers in Wuhan reopened, but they are mostly empty, most people are still too scared to go shopping for non-essential items. “I'm happy if no one comes in,” admits sales assistant at Calvin Klein's store at Wuhan International Plaza. “It's safer.” Typically, customers left 20,000 yuan (about $ 3,000) in the store over the weekend, and there were only two purchases in the week that passed since the store opened after the outbreak on March 30.

 

 

Such sentiments are ubiquitous. For example, in order to maintain a distance between sellers in shops and buyers, real walls are build in the city - 2 meters in height.

 

The movement of residents remains under tight control, and officials are on high alert for an outbreak. The Chinese government tracks residents through QR codes embedded in Alipay payment system and Wechat social network. Each application user automatically receives their health status at midnight - green, yellow or red - depending on their location, basic health information and travel history. Only those with a green code can leave their apartments and go to work. It is easy to lose the color of the code necessary for movement: it is enough to visit a shopping center, where later a case of infection with coronavirus will be revealed — then the green color turns yellow and implies self-isolation of the house.

 

Xiaomi Corp. employees who return to work are instructed not to enter the office elevator for more than five people each. At the same time, you can only stand in the elevator in accordance with special marks on the floor.

 

Five-star hotels are up and running again, but the buffet has been reduced to a few basic dishes, packed in individual disposable containers.

 

Li Jing, 33, who provides visitors with apartments, admits that Wuhan is now “clearly not the place people choose to visit first.” To lure guests, before each check-in, Lee will carry out a three-hour disinfection and expand the menu of services for guests. However, he admits that his apartments may be vacant for several weeks and even months.

 

Investors will not come

 

Officially, the plants in Wuhan can already resume work, but people are not in a hurry to return to jobs, and the supply chain must now be reorganized. One of the largest factories in Wuhan is the joint production of Peugeot cars by the PSA Group and the Chinese Dongfeng Motor Group. Machine assembly has resumed, but employees indicate that supply chains are intermittent. According to one of the plant’s managers, Mei Yunfeng, many of the company's suppliers have not yet returned to the same level as business as ussual.

 

 

“The outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic destroyed Wuhan’s plans to integrate more tightly into the global supply chain,” said Professor Chen from Huazhong University. The implications for tourism and foreign investment will continue for a long time. Chen points out that after the outbreak of SARS in 2003, foreign direct investment in Guangdong, where the epidemic began, stopped for two to three years. “The same thing will happen to Wuhan,” he is pessimistic. “Investors will be careful, fearing new outbreaks of the disease, in addition, it will seem to them that the city is poorly managed.”

News from Indian authorities is that they have banned TikTok video service and another 58 Chinese applications. A statement about this is published on the website of the state PIB (Press Information Bureau, Bureau of Press and Information) of India.

 Blocked applications "are detrimental to the sovereignty and integrity of India, the protection of India, state security and public order," the statement said. The list of prohibited services was also posted on the agency’s website; TikTok leads it. In addition to the video platform, the list also included applications from the Chinese WeChat social network, the Weibo microblogging service, the UC browser, and others.

 The Cybercrime Center of India receives applications from citizens who are concerned about data security and privacy, the PIB said. “This step will protect the interests of Indian mobile and Internet users. This decision is a deliberate step to ensure the security and sovereignty of Indian cyberspace, ”the department concluded.

 TikTok has already responded to the lock. The head of the service division in India, Nikhil Gandhi, said that the application complies with the laws of the country and does not transfer data to other states. “The confidentiality and integrity of users are of utmost importance to us,” Gandhi said.

Russian customs officers detained 106 tons of scrap metal from a decommissioned nuclear submarine while trying to export it to China without a license. This was reported by the press service of the Federal Customs Service (FCS).

After cutting the hull of the submarine, they tried to export the steel by a private company under the guise of scrap of ferrous metals. As noted in the department, for the export abroad of metals that can be reused by melting and subsequent forging when creating military equipment, a license of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation of Russia is required.

It was found that the scrap from the submarine was purchased at the shipyard at the auction. The director of the company participated in it, using the license of another company. It is issued to specialized state organizations that have received the right to foreign trade with products of a special category.

A criminal case has been opened against the head of the exporting company under article 226.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Smuggling of military equipment).

Dozens of felted, spotted, colored and pampered cats have arrived at the world's first veterinary clinic to hospitalize and treat cats with COVID-19.  The head of the Russian National Veterinary Service, Nikolai Vlasov, approved the testing of cats and their immediate quarantine.

Russia faces a wave of more than 8,500 new cases of coronavirus each day and has 387,700 people infected and 4,400 people who have died from the killer virus.  Authorities have conducted 10 million tests so far and for a week have been testing the pets of people who have been diagnosed with the relentless disease.  The head of the Russian National Veterinary Service, Nikolai Vlasov, had to approve the testing of cats after several were diagnosed with COVID-19.

Recently, the first quarantine center for cats was inaugurated in Moscow and houses 46 specimens that had the killer virus in their noses and throats, informs RT.  Until recently, cats could be quarantined with their owners who had mild symptoms of COVID-19.

 But the virus is spreading rapidly among cats and there are no clinical tests to confirm that the cat virus cannot be transmitted to humans.  Vlasov said that in his opinion, the cat is "the end point of transmitting the virus", but that this must be confirmed by laboratory tests.  Meanwhile, the 46 specimens are treated and after about 6 days show visible signs of recovery.

No cats developed severe forms of the disease and developed immunity to the virus.  Among the quarantined cats, Saşa, Olea and Tişa are the most pampered because they enjoy the full attention of the nurses who rarely put a mask on their face in their presence.  A study by British researchers confirmed in early May that cats can get COVID-19, but is unlikely to get severe.

Everyone has heard about how loyal dogs are to their owners. Books, articles have been written about this, and even films are being made. But what about cats whiskered-striped? Cats are also not insensitive. Let me tell you one great story about this right now. Gork Shuya is part of the Ivanovo region of Russia. Although it is ancient, it is small - only 58 thousand people.

In its very center, in an old, almost dilapidated house, lived one pensioner ... She buried her spouse long ago. The children grew up and moved out to different cities of the country. So our heroine lived alone. Oh no, sorry! And she lived in the company of an elderly red cat Vasya.

 In order not to sit in four walls, as well as for extra income, she got a job in a store. Not a saleswoman, of course, it was already hard in her years, but a cleaner. Every day, leaving home for only a few hours, she was allowed to take her Vasily for a walk. He ran where he wanted on his own, and in the evening he waited and met his mistress near the fence. Everything wandered along the house, just like a scientist Pushkin cat. Unless he told tales ... And he didn’t go along the chain)))

In the evening, seeing the mistress, he immediately received something delicious as a reward. But one day he did not wait for his mistress. At work, she felt bad. The ambulance took her to the hospital ... with a stroke. And this matter, as you understand, is protracted. First - treatment, then long-term rehabilitation. And the cat Vasya, as he was sitting near the fence, remained in the same place.

When the sick grandmother found out that her cat was alive and well, and that she could not wait for her at the entrance to their common house, she was moved. She had a strong motivation to get well as soon as possible and hug her faithful Vasya. 

So a week later, the doctors were able to release her for home follow-up treatment. And so she goes home from the hospital ... Little by little, but joyfully. The cat saw her from afar and jumped with happiness! And this woman began to appreciate Vaska even more. After all, there is his share in restoring her well-being. Perhaps the most essential!