Trains and buses disinfected in Wuhan & checkpoints removed as city prepares to end lockdown (VIDEOS)

Disinfection teams have been deployed to transport hubs in the Chinese city of Wuhan – the epicenter of the Covid-19 outbreak – as it now prepares for normal life to resume, with the strict lockdown due to end in early April.

Residents with a clean health record – meaning they had no contact with confirmed or suspected Covid-19 patients – will be allowed to leave quarantined cities in China's central Hubei province from March 25. The region's capital Wuhan, where the disease was first recorded in December, will be opened on April 8.

Cleaners in hazmat suits sprayed Wuhan's metro with disinfectant on Monday in preparation for the public transport system resuming normal operations. Workers in masks and gloves wiped the entry gates and ticket vending machines clean.

Disinfection teams have previously been deployed to empty bus terminals and train stations – including the Hankou railway station, which saw the first high-speed train arrive from a city inside Hubei province since Wuhan was placed under strict lockdown in January.

Authorities removed all checkpoints that had been used to enforce the quarantine in Wuhan. Car manufacturers, delivery companies and more than 2,000 online stores were allowed to resume work.

Wuhan was the Chinese city hardest hit by the pandemic. But the number of newly recorded Covid-19 cases began to gradually decrease in recent weeks, with just a single new case reported in the Hubei province on Tuesday – the first in six days. Overall, 78 people tested positive for Covid-19 in China on Tuesday. The vast majority of patients have recently returned from trips abroad.

More than 81,000 Covid-19 cases have been recorded in mainland China since the beginning of the outbreak, with 3,277 deaths.

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