Hidden behind fences, the now disused Huoshenshan hospital was built by thousands of workers in this metropolis in central China where the virus was first detected. On January 23, 2020, faced with the spread of a then unknown virus, the Wuhan authorities decreed total confinement of the city which would last a total of 76 days.
It was the kick-off, in China, of a strict health policy of movement control, compulsory quarantines and then tests, which foreshadowed the global upheavals to come.
This combination photograph shows medical staff wearing protective clothing in front of the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital on January 25, 2020 (top) and a view of the same location at the hospital entrance on January 25, 2020. December 21, 2024.
© (AFP Photo)
Today, the city’s bustling shopping districts and traffic jams seem light years away from the completely deserted streets and crowded hospitals, symbolic of the planet’s first anti-Covid lockdown.
The abandoned Huanan market
“People are moving forward. These memories are becoming more and more blurred”says Jack He, a 20-year-old student who lives in Wuhan. A high school student during confinement, he had spent a large part of his school year taking online courses at home. “It still feels like these years were really difficult […] But a new life has begun »he emphasizes, a few days before the fifth anniversary of confinement.
On the site which hosted the Huanan market, where scientists believe that the virus could have passed from animals to humans, a light blue wall was built to hide the now disused stalls. There is no sign to remind you of the importance of the place. The old market stalls have been moved to a new area outside the city center.
A policeman standing guard outside the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, where the coronavirus was detected, in Wuhan on January 24, 2020 (top) and women standing outside the same now-closed market on December 21, 2024.
© (AFP Photo)
In truth, the city does not really have a place to pay tribute to the victims of the pandemic. Official commemorations of the confinement emphasize the heroism of doctors and the effectiveness of measures against the epidemic. Despite criticism, often heard internationally, about the authorities’ cover-up of the first cases in December 2019.
The tourist effect of “the city of heroes”
One of the few places of public commemoration of the confinement is located next to the former Huoshenshan hospital: a gas station which also serves as a “education base for the fight against the Covid-19 epidemic”.
One wall displays a timeline of the lockdown, with faded photographs of President Xi Jinping, who visited Wuhan in March 2020. An employee says a small building behind the facility’s convenience store housed another exhibit, but that it now only opens “when the leaders come to visit”.
The city has, it is true, already regained its pre-Covid excitement a long time ago. In the morning, locals flock to the lively market on Shanhaiguan Street, specializing in breakfasts, where they come to enjoy noodles or donuts.
On the upscale shopping street of Chuhe Hanjie, people come to walk their dogs and young people are dressed in the latest fashions, while others wait to order trendy milk teas.
A 40-year-old resident, Chen Ziyi, believes that the notoriety acquired by the city during the pandemic has ultimately had a rather positive effect, leading to an influx of tourists. “Everyone is more interested in Wuhan now”she declares. “They say Wuhan is the city of heroes. »
