View from the Yellow Crane Tower in Wuhan, the city at the center of the epidemic in China

On April 8, the lockdown in Wuhan was lifted after 76 days. Since last week it was already allowed for people to travel to the city, on April 8 those who had been confined in the city since January 23 were allowed to leave and travel to other parts of China if they could present a green QR code, indicating that they are not infected with the SARS-Cov-19 virus. But authorities remain on alert to prevent a resurgence of the epidemic amid reports that asymptomatic virus carriers could also be infectious. People will be allowed to move around but are advised to remain cautious as control measures will not be lifted. A study published by Science magazine suggests that the lockdown of Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, combined with the Level 1 national emergency response, prevented more than 700,000 Covid-19 cases in China. Stringent controls in the first 50 days of the epidemic gave other cities across China valuable time to prepare and introduce their own measures.

On April 4, the traditional Qingming festival when Chinese honor their ancestors and departed loved ones, people observed three minutes of silence at 10 a.m. as sirens blared and motorists sounded their car horns. Members of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, including its General Secretary and also the country’s President Xi Jinping, stood in mourning.

On April 7, China welcomed some good news as for the first time since it started issuing daily updates on the epidemic, no deaths were reported as a result of Covid-19. The National Health Commission (NHC) reported 32 new cases, but only one was a locally transmitted case, the other 31 being imported cases – Chinese citizens who returned from abroad. Authorities are now focussing their efforts on preventing a resurgence of the epidemic as a result of imported cases. Foreigners have already been barred from entering the country – except for diplomats and those who manage to obtain special visas – but Chinese nationals are still allowed to return from abroad, many coming from heavily infected areas. Of a total 1.6 million Chinese students studying abroad, 1.42 million are still staying in different countries and regions, said Deputy Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu. Most students choose to stay in their host country to avoid further cross infection, but China is still expected to organize repatriation flights for those who want to return home. China’s Foreign Ministry has strongly advised foreign diplomats to China currently outside the country not to return until May 15, as a number of diplomats have been infected by the coronavirus. “Diplomats enjoy immunity, but the virus will not grant them immunity,” China’s Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.

During an inspection tour in Zhejiang province, Chinese President Xi Jinping said the epidemic situation in China is moving steadily in a positive direction, and the peak of the current COVID-19 outbreak is over in the country. The risk posed by imported cases, however, remains as the pandemic is accelerating its spread across the world, said Xi, stressing intensified management of asymptomatic virus cases in China. China will make preventing imported cases the top priority in its COVID-19 response at present and even for a “prolonged” period of time, he said.

Starting from April 1, China started publishing details on asymptomatic cases of Covid-19 on a daily basis in a swift policy adjustment in response to growing concerns that these patients might trigger a second outbreak in China. Officials were urged to monitor, track, isolate and treat asymptomatic patients properly, and take samples to carry out epidemiological analysis in order to further improve prevention and control work. However, medical experts noted that the silent novel coronavirus carriers, although deserving of close attention due to a lack of data on its scale and infectivity, is not the main channel of transmission of the virus based on current confirmed cases.

Asymptomatic patients are defined as those who have no clinical symptoms but test positive for Covid-19. According to China’s epidemiological guidelines, asymptomatic patients must be quarantined collectively for 14 days and undergo two nucleic acid tests. If positive, isolated medical observation will be continued. Individuals who have had close contacts with such cases have also been required to be quarantined for 14 days. Asymptomatic patients will be counted as confirmed cases when they start to show clinical symptoms and should be sent to designated hospitals for treatment. Chinese epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan told media that asymptomatic cases would not cause a second outbreak in China as the country has built a powerful screening system.

China hopes to test a possible Covid-19 vaccine abroad as scientists look to carry out large-scale trials to test its effectiveness. Military scientists have been working on a vaccine and the results of the first-stage clinical trials will be announced later this month. The first stage of the clinical trial for the vaccine started in Wuhan on March 16, with 108 volunteers receiving injections. A team of Chinese scientists led by Zhang Linqi at Tsinghua University has also isolated antibodies that are “extremely effective” at blocking the ability of the novel coronavirus to enter cells, which eventually could be helpful in treating or preventing Covid-19. Together with experts from the Third People’s Hospital in Shenzhen, the team began analyzing antibodies from blood taken from recovered COVID-19 patients, isolating 206 monoclonal antibodies which showed what he described as a “strong” ability to bind with the virus’ proteins.

More than 460,000 Chinese firms closed permanently in the first quarter, with more than half of them having operated for under three years. About 26,000 of the firms were in the export sector. Meanwhile, the pace of new firms being established slowed significantly. From January to March, around 3.2 million businesses were set up, a 29% drop from a year earlier. The number of business closures underlines the challenges facing China as it tries to revive its economy. Many more enterprises are on the verge of bankruptcy but haven’t declared it yet.

This summary was compiled based on reports by the China Daily, Shanghai Daily, Global Times, the Guardian and the South China Morning Post.