Daily Times

Youngsters in China’s virus epicentre of Wuhan filed back to class on Wednesday (May 6), wearing masks and walking in single file past thermal scanners.

Senior school students in 121 institutions were back in front of chalkboards and digital displays for the first time since their city – the ground zero of the COVID-19 pandemic – shut down in January.

“School is finally reopening!” posted one user of Weibo, China’s Twitter-like short messaging platform.

Teenagers sat at individual desks spaced a metre apart, seeing their teachers in the flesh after months of distance learning.

The city, where the coronavirus appeared late last year before spreading around the world, was locked down for 76 days and only reopened last month.

Return dates have not yet been confirmed for junior and middle school students.

Officials in Wuhan say students and staff must all have had virus tests before going back to school, and campuses have been disinfected and cleaned.

Thermal scanners greeted everyone walking through school gates, and anyone with a high temperature was not allowed in.

China’s major cities are gradually returning to normal after imposing strict travel restrictions and closing huge swathes of the economy to control the spread of the virus.

In recent months, infections nationwide have dwindled, and there have been no new cases reported in Hubei province for over a month.