Both long for a return to normal life, such as it was, back to work, back to making things great again, however imperfect that life may have been. And it is this desire to dash out of our homes and return to lives not yet prudent to resume, this irrational impulse to abandon reason and rational thought, that defines us in the West. We have trouble seeing the forest for the trees, to look at the bigger picture or the long-term approach.
Chinese authorities said Tuesday they will end a two-month lockdown of most of corona virus-hit Hubei province at midnight, as domestic cases of what has become a global pandemic subside. People with a clean bill of health will be allowed to leave, the provincial government said, easing restrictions on movement that were unprecedented in scale.
The city of Wuhan, where the virus was first detected in December, is to remain locked down until 8 April. China barred people from leaving or entering Wuhan beginning 23 January in a surprise middle-of-the-night announcement and expanded that to most of the province in succeeding days. The drastic steps came as the corona virus began spreading to the rest of China and overseas during the Lunar New Year holiday, when millions of Chinese travel.
Hospitals overflowed, and temporary ones were hastily set up to try to isolate the growing number of infected patients. The outbreak has since been brought under control, and Hubei has seen almost no new infections for more than a week.
It remained unclear, however, which cities and provinces, including Beijing, the capital, would allow people from Hubei to enter their jurisdictions. About , migrant workers, including many who had made the traditional trip home to Hubei for Lunar New Year, have already been allowed to leave in recent days on special buses and trains, according to Chinese media reports.
