Lockdown has eased in Wuhan, the Chinese city where the global coronavirus pandemic began.
The city of 11 million people, in Hubei province, has been shut off to the world since January as cases climbed to 50,000 and 3,000 died.
Numbers have plummeted over the last two months, with state officials reporting 54 cases on Friday - all of which it said were imported.
Now people from elsewhere in China are being allowed to enter Wuhan, but not leave, and roads reopened to traffic last night, according to reports.
The country has brought in a temporary ban on foreign visitors even if they have visas or residence permits in a bid to stop the pandemic returning, with airlines also limited to one flight a week, which has to be more than 75 per cent full.
Researchers estimate 600,000 confirmed infections have been recorded globally and 28,000 deaths since Covid-19 first emerged in Wuhan in December. It is thought to have began in a wild seafood market.
Roadblocks and drastic curbs on civil liberties have confined its residents to total lockdown for the last two months, but state media said the subway would reopen on Saturday as high-speed trains arrive at the city’s 17 stations.
State officials say the restrictions on people leaving the city will end on April 8, when domestic flights are due to resume.
Guo Liangkai, a 19-year-old student whose one-month work stint in Shanghai stretched to three months due to the clampdown, said upon arriving into Wuhan on Saturday morning: “It makes me very happy that I can see my family.
“We wanted to hug but now is a special period so we can’t hug or take any actions like these.”
The last confirmed locally transmitted case of the virus in Wuhan was on Monday, but authorities are still urging disinfectant and masks amid concern China’s unknown number of asymptomatic carriers could spark a second wave of infections, as seen in South Korea and Singapore.
