Coronavirus: Wuhan begins to return to everyday life

The city where the coronavirus pandemic began, Wuhan in China's Hubei province, has partially re-opened after more than two months of isolation.

Pictures taken on Thursday and Friday show residents outdoors buying street food and a theatre being disinfected.

Wuhan, the provincial capital, had more than 50,000 coronavirus cases. At least 3,000 people in Hubei died from the disease.

Numbers of new cases have fallen dramatically since, according to China's figures.

On 28 March the province reported 54 new cases had emerged the previous day - all of which, it said, were imported.

Residents have been slowly trickling back on to the streets, with some allowed to leave their homes for the first time since 23 January, as volunteers in protective suits disinfected public areas in preparation for an increase in activity.

Volunteers from the Blue Sky Rescue team, a non-governmental humanitarian organisation, disinfected the Qintai Grand Theatre in Wuhan.

As it battles to control cases coming from abroad, China has announced a temporary ban on all foreign visitors, even if they have visas or residence permits.

It is also limiting Chinese and foreign airlines to one flight per week - and flights must not be more than 75% full.

Wuhan is scheduled to allow people to leave the city on 8 April. Officials are concerned about the possibility of a second wave of infections, warning people to remain vigilant as it orders local health authorities to step up detection, monitoring and supervision.

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