COVID-19: Wuhan resumes bus services, China reports 47 new imported cases

Beijing/Wuhan: Wuhan, the epicentre of the novel coronavirus pandemic, on Wednesday (March 25, 2020) resumed bus services within the city for the first time since the nine-week lockdown even as 47 new imported cases were reported from the country, threatening a second wave of infections.

According to the Chinese media report, a bus departed from its terminus at Hankou Railway Station at 5:25 am Wednesday morning.

Apart from a driver, a safety supervisor was also on each bus, whose duty was to make sure all passengers are healthy.

The city resumed a total of 117 bus routes starting Wednesday, around 30 per cent of the city's total bus transport capacity, the municipal transport bureau said.

It would resume outbound transport services from April 8.

"For those who do not use smartphones, they should bring with them a health certificate issued by the health authorities," said Zhou Jingjing, a safety supervisor aboard bus No. 511 departing from the Wuchang Railway Station complex.

People in Wuhan will be allowed to leave the city and Hubei Province, if they hold a green health code, meaning no contact with any infected or suspected COVID-19 cases.

From Saturday, six metro lines are expected to reopen to the public. The service time will be published on the stations.

The once hardest-hit city in central China`s Hubei Province during the COVID-19 outbreak took unprecedented traffic restrictions on January 23. 

All of its public transport and all outbound flights and trains was suspended in an attempt to contain the virus within the region.