April 12, 2020

I came across a Wonderful Tweet thread on “what’s happening in Wuhan and in China post removal of the lockdown”? Pasted at end of this blog piece.

To give us all a shape of things to come for all of us perhaps, over the world, when we come to that stage. Am summarising top 5-6 learnings :

• An exodus of tens of thousands of people immediately. People who possibly have their roots somewhere else and want to migrate back there. Or people who want to leave Wuhan for some other city. Or simply people wanting a vacation ?
• Companies tested all employees before they came back to work. Hence, testing kits will be required for that too. One company said they were doing 6000 tests a day (might be some manufacturing company or an IT/ BPO type company)
• People are still cautious and not going outside too much. No one is eating in restaurants; shopping malls are empty.
• Govt has come out with a consumption campaign, but people are refusing to bite, both because of health worries and financial worries.
• Small business owners continue to get hit the most
• Car sales have increased because people want to avoid public transport.

Been in Wuhan for a week now with @ClaireYChe and @sarahchen. Watching the city emerge from lockdown offers us glimpses of scenes that will likely unfold elsewhere as other cities try to get their economies back on track. Here are some stories that shed light on what’s to come.

— Sharon Chen (@sharonchenhm) April 11, 2020