China, which observed a 3-month long lockdown as it battled Coronavirus is slowly returning to normalcy. Wuhan, one of the worst hit provinces celebrated the end of lockdown early in April and on Sunday, the Chinese news agency, Xinhua reported that all COVID-19 cases have been cleared from the city’s hospitals. This has been closely followed by many provinces reopening schools in the country following strict social distancing guidelines.
It is reported that the Chinese Ministry of Education (MOE) has ordered different class schedules for primary and secondary classes throughout the country. Schools have also been asked to design emergency plans to deal with students showing COVID-19 symptoms. However, Wang Dengfeng, director, MOE, did admit that the country’s schools will face their real challenge in May when intensive classes are scheduled to resume throughout the country.
Eileen Chengyin Chow, a professor at Duke University shared pictures on Twitter of Chinese school students attending classes wearing handmade social distancing headgears.
“First graders back to school in Hangzhou, with social distancing headgear The long horizontal plumes on Song Dynasty toppers were supposedly to prevent officials from conspiring sotto voce with one another while at court—so social distancing was in fact their original function!,” Chow tweeted.
In the country’s Hunan province students at Changjun Xiangfu High School found themselves having lunch at the school’s gymnasium with desks placed 1.5 meters apart in order to maintain social distance. “With 480 single desks spaced 1.5 meters apart and the floor covered with waterproof nylon cloth, the 800-square-meter gymnasium has been converted into a large canteen,” the Chinese news agency reported.
A video posted by the South China Morning Post has gone viral showing a 10-year-old boy in the Hunan province showing off his Kung Fu moves as he returned to school.
Apart from schools, China also claims to be carrying out numerous construction projects in order to get the country’s industries back on their feet. This week, Xinhua also reported that complete construction has resumed in the Shenzhen-Zhongshan cross-sea link in South China’s Guangdong.
“The economy is a dynamic circulating system that cannot afford a long-term disruption,” Chinese President Xi Jinping said earlier in February. The country is looking to restart its manufacturing and production activities at the earliest with the Chinese President personally inspecting major production plants.
