WUHAN, April 8 (Xinhua) -- As the megacity of Wuhan is finally reconnected to the rest of the world after a 76-day coronavirus lockdown, the people there who bore the brunt of the highly infectious disease are gradually getting back to their normal lives.
While uncertainties and worries over the danger of infection still linger, the restoration of normal production and daily life of Wuhan people has been quickened as the positive trend in controlling the epidemic has been constantly consolidated in the city.
Here are stories of some ordinary residents across the city who are making efforts to tide over the negative impact caused by the epidemic and continue their life with hopes and confidence.
RESTAURANT OWNER
In front of a fast-food restaurant in Wuchang District of Wuhan stood a wood table, where a shop sign was placed with words of "live fish for sale" written on it.
Wearing a face mask, restaurant owner Zhou Hongbo was busy scraping fish scales, while his 13-year-old son was teasing crayfish beside him.
The less than 20-square-meter eatery used to provide Chinese food to nearby diners, but it was closed over two months ago as the epidemic outbreak forced millions of locals to stay at home and avoid dining out.
"I need to pay a monthly rent of 5,000 yuan (about 700 U.S. dollars) for the restaurant, apart from my family's daily expenses and house loan," said Zhou. "I could hardly make ends meet after the restaurant was closed during the epidemic."
Instead of resuming the business by offering food delivery services, Zhou decided to sell aquatic products after it reopened on April 2.
To attract more customers, 42-year-old Zhou provides home delivery services without charging any delivery fee. "The daily sales volume is around 3,000 yuan, even higher than that of the fast-food business," Zhou said.
"The customer flow hasn't returned to the normal level compared to the pre-epidemic period as Wuhan has just lifted the anti-virus controls," said Zhou. "I am confident that the business will get better after we get through it."
"The epidemic brought changes to and caused impacts on the life of everyone," said Zhou. "But the hard time will finally come to an end. We will embrace a better life."
DELIVERY DRIVER
Li Bingdong, a deliveryman working at the Huangpu branch of China's courier service provider YT Express in Wuhan, needs to deal with over 400 packages daily with his colleague since the logistics company inch toward normalcy in the city.
"People are eager to do online shopping again after the express delivery services resumed in the city," said Li.
As residential communities in Wuhan still restrict entries of non-residents, deliverymen have to make phone calls to package receivers one by one and wait for them outside communities.
"The work efficiency is low, but we understand it," said Li. "The epidemic also brought some positive changes. Clients are more patient than before when there is a delivery delay."
Each day, Li carries out frequent and thorough disinfection to ensure the safety of both his clients and himself. "The epidemic hasn't come to an end. We still need to be cautious, as we have made huge sacrifices to achieve the current results."
Amid the epidemic, Li, among the 55 delivery drivers in the Wuhan branches of the express firm, stuck to his post to send medical materials to hospitals and daily necessities to residential communities every day.
In the past two months, he traveled for more than 12,000 km and met different clients. "I was born and grew up in Hubei Province. I just want to do my part to help my hometown pull through the hardest time," the emotional deliveryman said.
"The lockdown in Wuhan has been lifted. We will overcome the difficulty together very soon," said Li.
RESPIRATORY PHYSICIAN
At 7:40 a.m., Ge Chang, a doctor of respiratory medicine at Liyuan Hospital in Wuhan, got on a bus after showing her health code on the phone and having her temperature checked.
There were fewer than five passengers on the bus. All wore a face mask and sat apart from one another.
"The epidemic has greatly changed people's lives. While the situation has been eased a lot, everyone in the city is still cautious and strictly follows the epidemic control measures," Ge said.
The hospital where 26-year-old Ge works was one of the medical institutions to receive COVID-19 patients in Wuhan. It fully resumed medical services for patients who suffer from other diseases on April 3.
"Medic workers who were dispatched to other hospitals to help fight the epidemic have returned to their workplaces. We have enough medical forces to take in other patients," said Ge.
"About 30 patients are hospitalized in my ward, lower than our normal treatment capacity," said Ge. "Currently, all patients must receive CT scans and nucleic acid and serum tests before being hospitalized."
The epidemic shows the importance of public health disciplines, according to Ge.
"When I was studying in medical school, most students took clinical courses, and few chose public health classes," Ge said. "After this epidemic, I believe people will pay more attention to the field."
