China came to a standstill on Saturday to mourn patients and medical staff killed by the coronavirus, as the world’s most populous country observed a nationwide three-minute silence.
Officials said the observance was a chance to mourn virus ‘martyrs’ – an honorific title bestowed by the government this week on 14 medical workers who died fighting the outbreak.
The country has recorded 3,326 deaths from coronavirus and 81,639 cases but many speculate that this number is much higher.
At 10am, citizens paused, cars, trains and ships sounded their horns, and air-raid sirens rang out in memory.
China came to a standstill on Saturday to mourn patients and medical staff killed by the coronavirus, as the world’s most populous country observed a nationwide three-minute silence. Pictured: People during the silence in Wuhan
Officials said the observance was a chance to mourn virus ‘martyrs’ – an honorific title bestowed by the government this week on 14 medical workers who died fighting the outbreak. Pictured: A mourner in Tiananmen Square, Beijing
China has recorded 3,326 deaths from coronavirus and 81,639 cases but many speculate that this number is much higher. Pictured: A mourner in Wuhan
In Wuhan – the city where the virus first emerged late last year – sirens and horns sounded as people fell silent in the streets.
Staff at the Tongji Hospital stood outside with heads bowed towards the main building, some in the protective hazmat suits that have become a symbol of the crisis worldwide.
Xu, a nurse at Tongji who worked on the frontlines treating coronavirus patients said: ‘I hope they can rest well in heaven.’
Workers in protective wear paused silently beside barriers at one residential community – a reminder that there are still tight restrictions on everyday life across Wuhan.
State media showed Chinese President Xi Jinping and other officials standing outside a Beijing government compound, wearing white flowers.
At 10am, citizens paused, cars, trains and ships sounded their horns, and air-raid sirens rang out in memory. Pictured: Drivers sound their horns in Wuhan
Police officers fell silent and bowed their heads as they stood on a road in Nanjing. The three-minute silence was to remember the coronavirus ‘martyrs’
Medical workers stood silent at the First Hospital of Fuzhou during the nation-wide three minutes of silence to remember coronavirus victims
National flags were lowered to half-mast across the country, including in the capital’s Tiananmen Square. Pictured: A flag at half-mast in Haikou
National flags were lowered to half-mast across the country, including in the capital’s Tiananmen Square.
Pedestrians in one of the city’s busiest shopping districts stopped walking and kept their heads low in silent tribute, while police patrolling stood at the side of the road with their riot shields down and bowed heads.
Shopper Wang Yongna said: ‘During this process, a lot of people including the medical workers… have made extraordinary contributions. They are all heroes.’
The medics dubbed ‘martyrs’ included doctor Li Wenliang, a whistleblower in Wuhan who was reprimanded by authorities for trying to warn others in the early days of the contagion. Pictured: Chinese railway employees and travellers wear protective masks as they bow their heads at Beijing Railway Station
Park-goers paused their activities too, some with hands together in prayer.
Trains on Beijing’s subway network also came to a standstill.
The hashtag ‘China remembers its heroes’ racked up nearly 1.3 billion views on the Twitter-like Weibo platform on Saturday.
The medics dubbed ‘martyrs’ included doctor Li Wenliang, a whistleblower in Wuhan who was reprimanded by authorities for trying to warn others in the early days of the contagion.
Li’s death from coronavirus in February prompted a national outpouring of grief and anger at the government’s handling of the crisis.
The ruling Communist Party has sought to direct criticism to local authorities in Wuhan and surrounding Hubei province, who have been accused of downplaying the severity of the virus at first.
Despite drastic measures to lock down the province in late January, the epidemic spiralled into a global pandemic with more than one million cases.
Some restrictions in Hubei were eased in recent weeks after the officially-stated number of new infections dropped to near zero.
Saturday’s commemoration coincided with the annual Qing Ming holiday – the ‘tomb sweeping’ festival – when Chinese people visit the graves of relatives and leave offerings in remembrance.
Although China claims to have curbed the spread of the virus, some restrictions were tightened again this week to prevent a second wave of infections.
Authorities have discouraged visits to cemeteries to mark the festival.
Last year, nearly ten million people visited cemeteries across the three-day holiday, according to state news agency Xinhua.
At Beijing’s enormous Babaoshan cemetery, mourners had to make an online reservation to visit a grave in a limited number of time slots, with only three relatives allowed per tomb.
Nobody was going in or coming out of Wuhan’s Biandanshan Cemetery Saturday afternoon, and security staff stood at the gate.
Some residents burned paper money on the streets Friday, the eve of the festival, instead.
A 50-year-old Wuhan resident with the surname Li said: ‘We can only stay at home, we can’t go to the graves. We can only remember our relatives at home.’
Cemeteries across China are offering a ‘cloud tomb-sweeping’ service in which families can honour their ancestors by watching a live stream of cemetery staff attending to graves on their behalf.
Websites are also offering people the chance to pay their respects at a ‘virtual’ tomb, including by lighting a digital candle and leaving a dish of digital fruit.
China today reported one new confirmed case in Wuhan and 18 among people arriving from abroad, along with four new deaths, all in Wuhan.
China now has recorded a total of 81,639 cases and 3,326 deaths, although those figures are generally considered to be understated because of a lack of testing and a reluctance to report the scale of the original outbreak.
China’s slow, cautious emergence from the global pandemic comes as the U.S. is struggling to deal with an outbreak that has taken more than 1,860 lives in New York City alone.
Hard-hit European nations Italy, Spain and France are also seeing rising numbers of cases and deaths, although strict social distancing measures such as those adopted by China appear to be having an effect.
The State Council, China’s Cabinet, ordered that national flags be flown at half-staff around the country and at Chinese embassies and consulates abroad, and the suspension of all public recreational activities.
The horns of automobiles, trains and ships joined in what China’s official Xinhua News Agency called a ‘wail in grief’ for three minutes.
China has held such moments of silence in the past, often to mark World War II-era atrocities by Japan, but rarely on a national scale.
The commemoration also comes on the traditional Qingming festival, when Chinese visit the graves of their ancestors. Officials have banned such observances this year to avoid large gatherings that might contribute to a feared second wave of infections.
More than 3,000 health care workers contracted the virus and the government says 14 died of the disease.
Among them was Dr. Li Wenliang, who was threatened with punishment by police after publicizing news of the outbreak but has since been listed among the national ‘martyrs.’