Wuhan to lift outbound travel curbs from April 8

The Chinese city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus pandemic originated last December, will lift outbound travel curbs from April 8 after over two months of lockdown, authorities said on Tuesday.

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, Xinhua news agency quoted a circular issued by the provincial COVID-19 control headquarters as saying.

Wuhan will take differentiated measures to promote the resumption of business operations based on the health risks of different regions to mitigate the impact on the economy, the circular said.

Other areas in Hubei, of which Wuhan is the capital, will lift outbound transportation restrictions from Wednesday, it further said.

Migrant workers who hold green codes and negative nucleic acid testing results will be sent out of the province to their workplace directly.

Hubei will continue to postpone the opening of schools until further notice, the circular added.

On January 23, Wuhan declared unprecedented traffic restrictions, including suspending the city's public transport and all outbound flights and trains, in an attempt to contain the epidemic within its territory.

Similar restrictions were soon introduced in other areas in Hubei.

One new confirmed COVID-19 case was reported on Monday in Wuhan after the city had seen zero new reports for five consecutive days.

It was also the sole new confirmed case reported in Hubei on Monday.

As of Tuesday, the number of confirmed cases in China increased to 81,545, while the death toll stood at 3,281, according to the latest updates by the Washington-based John Hopkins University.

The number of global confirmed cases was 381,598, while the death toll stood at 16,559, the updates revealed. IANS