Medical facilities in most of Wuhan have reported having no more patients with Covid-19, Chinese officials announced on Sunday, almost four months after the city was confirmed as the coronavirus' source.
Wuhan has declared about 46,000 cases of the disease since early December -- over 50 percent of all confirmed cases in China. The Chinese city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus first erupted months ago, has discharged the last of its Covid-19 patients from hospitals, a health official said over the weekend.
In a media conference Sunday, National Health Commission spokesperson Mi Feng said that with the combined actions of medical frontliners in Wuhan and the national medical support extended to Hubei province, all confirmed cases of the diseases were cleared as of April 26, just 24 hours after the last patient was sent home.
The 3,869 people confirmed to have perished in Wuhan account for over 80 percent of China's reported fatalities. It was a "historic moment," a newspaper controlled by the Wuhan government, divulged.
Hubei has no more suspected coronavirus cases in its hospitals, although 1,728 people who had close contact with those who have contracted the virus remain under medical monitoring, the provincial health commission disclosed on Monday.
In recent weeks, Wuhan has shown signs of recovery as lockdown restrictions have eased and temporary hospitals have been cleared. Officials said the town had only 12 cases of coronavirus as of Saturday, none of them new infections.
After months of paralysis, China, which has reported over 82,000 cases and a total of 4,633 deaths, slowly began reopening.
Nearly 50,000 high school students returned to class in Beijing on Monday in their third year, the most important one for preparing for the national university entrance exam known as the gaokao. Other cities and regions have declared separate reopening dates for the schools.
Many health experts in China are afraid that a second wave of coronavirus cases might emerge, as people flood back into subways, offices and shops.
A recent study by the University of Hong Kong found that lifting travel restrictions in the country could result in the import of more infections from Italy or the US.
China reported over 100 new cases of Covid-19 on April 12 - its biggest figure in five weeks. But in the last week, the number of new daily cases has remained consistently low.
Wuhan officially lifted its more than 10 weeks shutdown early this month, prompting thousands of people rushing to leave the city on trains and planes.
