One year ago on 23 January, the Chinese government locked down the city of Wuhan and its some 11 million people. A year later, how is China doing now?

China now has two main areas of concern in terms of Covid. Firstly a team from the World Health Organization is now in Wuhan to investigate the origin of the virus.

They are still in the 14 days of quarantine but have already generated much heat around the country as the state media live broadcast their arrival.

Another is how to contain the spread of the virus during the Chinese New Year holiday season. This is the biggest travel peak of the year.

According to China’s official figures, about 1.7 Billion passengers trips are expected in the coming days.

The government has announced that those returning to the rural areas need to provide a negative Covid test result done within 7 days, and upon arrival they will have to self isolate for two weeks and take a test every seven days.

Although there is no national lockdown, a system is in place which resembles the England’s tier system from last year.

As of 21 January, the government has listed 6 high risk areas, and 58 medium risk areas where the police and medical staff would wear hazmat suits on the street and put up barriers to distance the contaminated areas from the rest of the public.

However, there is no panicking up and down the country as most of the focus has been on how to celebrate the most important holiday in China after a year of horror and death.