Firefighters carry out disinfection to the lecture hall at the No. 23 Senior High School in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, April 22, 2020.Photo:Xinhua

 

Some 57,800 graduating class students in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei Province, returned to school on Wednesday, the first workday after the May Day holidays, as the city emerges from the COVID-19 outbreak and continues to resume work and production.

After more than 100 days of suspension, a batch of 121 high schools and technical schools in Wuhan resumed classes. Middle school graduating class students will follow soon. 

Schools rolled out stringent precautions, including health code scanning, the use of facial recognition, footprint signs to mark queuing distances and multiple temperature checks. 

Students will receive temperature checks three times a day. Once any suspected or confirmed COVID-19 case occurs, an emergency plan will be immediately launched. 

The departments of education, public security and public health in Wuhan have all prepared for the safety of school students in learning, transportation, housing, food and medicine.

Schools will also divide classes into smaller sizes, stagger the times that students leave schools, and keep oral communication to a minimum to ensure the safety of the students in class.

"The pandemic has left a great impact on many Wuhan people, particularly us students," Chen Jiujiu (pseudonym), a senior student from Wuhan No. 14 high school, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Many of Chen's classmates decided to choose medical or scientific technology-related majors for their future college study after being inspired by the sacrifice of the medical workers and the contribution of scientists in the battle against the pandemic in the past months, according to Chen.  

Chen said that she had decided to study medicine in college. "Wuhan people will not forget how much medical workers have done for the city. I will be very proud if I can join the medical team someday in the future," she said. 

Life is gradually returning to normalcy in Wuhan after the city lifted its 76-day lockdown and few cases of infection have been reported. 

Work and production in all industries has resumed at an increasing pace. The traffic flow in Wuhan's most popular business districts continues to go up. Wuhan Square business district saw 188,000 people on Tuesday, according to data that the Wuhan epidemic prevention and control group published.

Some 1,326 major projects with an investment of more than 100 million yuan ($14 million) have restarted, People's Daily reported on Sunday. Among the projects under construction in Wuhan, the rate of resumption of municipal key transportation projects has reached 100 percent, according to Changjiang Daily.

On Friday, 136 Korean technicians and suppliers reached Wuhan in chartered planes, which marked the first batch of foreigners to return to the city since the ban on entry of foreigners to prevent imported infections, Jiankang Shibao reported on Sunday.