Universities in China’s Hubei province, including the provincial capital of Wuhan where the COVID-19 virus outbreak first occurred, are to allow students to return in limited numbers from 8 June, according to notices issued by several universities. Only Chinese students living in mainland China will be allowed back.
By contrasts, Chinese students elsewhere, including from Taiwan and Hong Kong, and foreign students – including foreign students who remained in China during the pandemic – still do not know how long they will have to rely on limited online classes.
The move comes as Wuhan was declared free of the virus by city officials this week after mass testing of the city’s entire 10 million population between 14 May and 1 June, which showed no confirmed infections.
Hubei was the province worst affected by virus and the move to reopen universities after almost six months – longer than other provinces – is seen as a highly symbolic moment in China’s battle against the virus which spread globally, resulting in almost 6.2 million cases worldwide and 376,000 deaths as of 3 June.
Of China’s official figure of 83,021 confirmed cases since December 2019, when the first cases emerged in Wuhan, some 68,135 occurred in Hubei province. Wuhan itself accounted for 50,340 confirmed infections – 60% of the national total. Most of the country’s 4,634 deaths also occurred in Hubei province, which saw a travel ban and strict lockdown from 23 January.
China reported just one new coronavirus case, said to be a traveller from overseas, and four new asymptomatic Covid-19 cases on 2 June, the country’s health commission said.
Around 80 universities and another 40 higher education institutions in Hubei will now reopen amid strict guidelines set out by the Ministry of Education and Hubei provincial authorities, starting with final-year students due to graduate this month.
Around 440,000 final year students have been forced to study at home amid a strict 76-day lockdown that ended in early April, although some restrictions on city travel continue to be in place. ♦
