covid-19 lockdown in china covid-19 lockdown in china on 23 january 2020, the central government of china imposed a lockdown in wuhan and other cities in hubei in an effort to quarantine the center of an outbreak of covid-19; this action was commonly referred to as the wuhan lockdown (chinese: 武汉封城; pinyin: wǔhàn fēng chéng). the world health organization (who), although stating that it was beyond its own guidelines, commended the move, calling it "unprecedented in public health history". for broader coverage of this topic, see chinese government response to covid-19. covid-19 lockdown in chinapart of the covid-19 pandemic in mainland chinatop: montage of various scenes in wuhan during the outbreak bottom map legend: areas that have been or are being blocked due to the outbreak areas not yet blocked but with more cases date23 january – 8 april 2020 (2 months, 2 weeks and 2 days; most of hubei ended on 25 march 2020; wuhan lockdown ended on 8 april 2020)locationhubei, chinacaused bycovid-19 pandemicgoalsquarantine the region of the covid-19 outbreakmethodssuspension of all public transport, and control of movement in and out of the cityresulted inabout 13 million quarantined in wuhan;over 57 million in fifteen other citieswuhan in hubei province, chinapeople in wuhan rush to buy vegetables. the lockdown in wuhan set the precedent for similar measures in other chinese cities. within hours of the wuhan lockdown, travel restrictions were also imposed on the nearby cities of huanggang and ezhou, and were eventually imposed on all 15 other cities in hubei, affecting a total of about 57 million people. on 2 february 2020, wenzhou, zhejiang, implemented a seven-day lockdown in which only one person per household was allowed to exit once each two days, and most of the highway exits were closed. on 13 march 2020, huangshi and qianjiang became the first hubei cities to remove strict travel restrictions within part or all of their administrative confines. on 8 april 2020, the wuhan lockdown officially ended. the lockdown, combined with other public health measures in early 2020, succeeded in suppressing virus transmission and averted a more widespread outbreak in china. subsequent lockdowns were introduced in other regions of china in response to localised outbreaks during the two years following. the largest of these was shanghai in early 2022. some western observers, such as amnesty international, were initially skeptical of the lockdown; however, as the covid-19 pandemic spread to other countries and territories, similar measures were enacted around the globe. a series of protests in mainland china against covid-19 lockdowns began in november 2022. on 7 december 2022, china's national health commission in a 10-point announcement stipulated that negative covid-19 tests would no longer be required, apart from vulnerable areas such as nurseries, elderly care facilities and schools. background wuhan is the capital of hubei province in china. with a population of over 11 million, it is the largest city in hubei, the most populous city in central china, the seventh-most populous chinese city, and one of the nine national central cities of china. wuhan lies in the eastern jianghan plain, on the confluence of the yangtze river and its largest tributary, the han river. it is a major transportation hub, with dozens of railways, roads and expressways passing through the city and connecting to other major cities. because of its key role in domestic transport, wuhan is known as the "nine provinces' thoroughfare" (九省通衢) and sometimes referred to as "the chicago of china". 2020 lockdowns hubei the last train on the wuhan metro before the lockdown map of locked down administrative divisions of hubei in mid-december 2019 the chinese government acknowledged an emerging cluster of people, many linked to the huanan seafood wholesale market in wuhan, were infected with pneumonia with no clear causes. chinese scientists subsequently linked the pneumonia to a new strain of coronavirus that was given the initial designation 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-ncov). some of the first symptoms appeared on 10 december, and 24 cases were later discovered to have connection to the seafood market. on 10 january 2020, the first death and 41 clinically confirmed infections caused by the coronavirus were reported. by 22 january, the novel coronavirus had spread to major cities and provinces in china, with 571 confirmed cases and 17 deaths reported. confirmed cases were also reported in other regions and countries, including hong kong, macau, taiwan, thailand, japan, south korea, and the united states. according to li lanjuan, a professor at zhejiang university's school of medicine and member of the high-level expert team convened by the national health commission, she had urged a lockdown on wuhan on several occasions between 19 january and 22 january 2020 as a last resort to contain the epidemic. at 2 am on 23 january, authorities issued a notice informing residents of wuhan that from 10 am, all public transport, including buses, railways, flights, and ferry services would be suspended. the wuhan airport, the wuhan railway station, and the wuhan metro were all closed. the residents of wuhan were also not allowed to leave the city without permission from the authorities. the notice caused an exodus from wuhan. an estimated 300,000 people were reported to have left wuhan by train alone before the 10 am lockdown. by the afternoon of 23 january, the authorities began shutting down some of the major highways leaving wuhan. the lockdown came two days before the chinese new year, the most important festival in the country, and traditionally the peak traveling season, when millions of chinese travel across the country. following the lockdown of wuhan, public transportation systems in two of wuhan's neighboring prefecture-level cities, huanggang and ezhou, were also placed on lockdown. a total of 12 other county to prefecture-level cities in hubei, including huangshi, jingzhou, yichang, xiaogan, jingmen, suizhou, xianning, qianjiang, xiantao, shiyan, tianmen and enshi, were placed on traveling restrictions by the end of 24 january, bringing the number of people affected by the restriction to more than 50 million. lockdown timeline 23 january, transport in wuhan, huanggang and ezhou severely restricted, including closure of public transit, trains, airports, and major highways 24 january, travel restrictions enacted in 12 additional prefecture-level cities in hubei 13 february, the chinese government has issued extension of order to shut down all non-essential companies, including manufacturing plants, in hubei province until at least 24:00 20 february. 20 february, the chinese government has issued extension of order to shut down all non-essential companies, including manufacturing plants, and all schools in hubei province until at least 24:00 10 march. 13 march: huangshi removes controls and permits on road traffic within its urban area; qianjiang does the same for its entire administrative area. 14 march: hubei sanitation and health committee (卫生健康委员会) vice-chairperson liu dongru (柳东如) announces that only wuhan remains a "high-risk area", and that the entirety of the rest of the province is considered medium- or "low-risk areas". any low-risk township-level divisions, in addition to those medium- and high-risk divisions with no confirmed active cases, could lift their blockades and other mobility controls. per china news service reporting, by 14 march, besides the aforementioned huangshi and qianjiang, yichang, huanggang, suizhou, xiantao, jingzhou, jingmen, shiyan, xiangyang, tianmen and shennongjia had announced "measures to lessen controls" and for industries to incrementally resume work and production. 17 march: jingzhou removes its permit requirements for transport, resuming normal transport operations, and also removes entry/exit controls on xiaoqu. 18 march: the hubei taskforce to control covid-19 (湖北省新冠肺炎疫情防控指挥部) announces that, with the exception of exit/entry into wuhan and the province as a whole, all anti-covid-19 traffic checkpoints within the province are to be removed. 22 march: wuhan loosens its two-month lockdown. 25 march: hubei lifts the lockdown outside of wuhan, although people will still need to confirm their "green code" health classification, designated by alipay's monitoring system, to travel. 8 april: wuhan lifts its lockdown, resumes all transportation, with residents intending to leave the city facing similar "green code" requirements as those in the rest of the province. cities under lockdown in china place province start date end date city level population cases deaths recoveries active wuhan hubei 2020-01-23 2020-04-08 sub-provincial 11,081,00050,3403,86946,4710 xiaogan hubei 2020-01-24 2020-03-25 prefectural 4,920,0003,5181293,3890 huanggang hubei 2020-01-23 2020-03-25 prefectural 6,330,0002,9071252,7820 jingzhou hubei 2020-01-24 2020-03-17 prefectural 5,590,2001,580521,5280 ezhou hubei 2020-01-23 2020-03-25 prefectural 1,077,7001,394591,3350 suizhou hubei 2020-01-24 2020-03-25 prefectural 2,216,7001,307451,2620 xiangyang hubei 2020-01-28 2020-03-25 prefectural 5,669,0001,175401,1350 huangshi hubei 2020-01-24 2020-03-13 prefectural 2,470,7001,015399760 yichang hubei 2020-01-24 2020-03-25 prefectural 4,135,850931378940 jingmen hubei 2020-01-24 2020-03-25 prefectural 2,896,500928418870 xianning hubei 2020-01-24 2020-03-25 prefectural 2,543,300836158210 shiyan hubei 2020-01-24 2020-03-25 prefectural 3,406,00067286640 xiantao hubei 2020-01-24 2020-03-25 sub-prefectural 1,140,500575225530 tianmen hubei 2020-01-24 2020-03-25 sub-prefectural 1,272,300496154810 enshi hubei 2020-01-24 2020-03-25 prefectural 3,378,00025272450 qianjiang hubei 2020-01-24 2020-03-13 sub-prefectural 966,00019891890 shennongjia hubei 2020-01-27 2020-03-25 sub-prefectural 78,912110110 wenzhou zhejiang 2020-02-02 2020-02-20 prefectural 9,190,00050715033 ürümqi xinjiang 2020-07-18 2020-08-26 prefectural 3,519,60084508450 shijiazhuang hebei 2021-01-07 2021-01-31 prefectural 11,031,200977196214 xi'an shaanxi 2021-12-22 2022-01-16 sub-provincial 8,467,838 2265 3 2185 77 yuzhou henan 2022-01-04 2022-01-31 county 1,167,000 - - - - anyang henan 2022-01-10 2022-02-03 prefectural 5,477,614 522 0 522 0 shenzhen guangdong 2022-03-14 2022-03-21 sub-provincial 17,560,000 982 3 428 551 shanghai shanghai 2022-04-01 2022-06-01 direct-administered municipality 24,870,895 lockdown total 101,602,89568,1354,51263,6230 outbreak ongoing: infection and fatality data as of 24:00 (utc+8) 4 june 2020. totals will evolve. lockdowns by outdoor restrictions on 1 february in huanggang, hubei implemented a measure whereby only one person from each household is permitted to go outside for provisions once every two days, except for medical reasons or to work at shops or pharmacies. many cities, districts, and counties across mainland china implemented similar measures in the days following, including wenzhou, hangzhou, fuzhou, harbin, and the whole of jiangxi. chinese administrative divisions with household-based outdoor restrictions administrativedivision divisionlevel provincialdivision start date end date ordinarypopulation populationyear notes sources huanggang prefectural hubei 2020-02-01 2020-03-22 6,162,069 2010 wenzhou prefectural zhejiang 2020-02-02 2020-02-08 9,190,000 2017 wenling prefectural zhejiang 2020-02-02 1,366,800 2010 fangchenggang prefectural guangxi 2020-02-02 2020-02-08 860,100 2010 guigang prefectural guangxi 2020-02-02 1,562,200(urban only) 2010 urban districts only yuzhou, yulin district guangxi 2020-02-02 2020-02-09 900,000 2010 zhouzhi, xi'an county shaanxi 2020-02-02 562,768 2010 one person per household every day huyi, xi'an district shaanxi 2020-02-03 2020-02-09 556,377 2010 one person per household every day bengbu prefectural anhui 2020-02-03 3,164,467 2010 huaibei prefectural anhui 2020-02-03 2,114,276 2010 bincheng,binzhou district shandong 2020-02-03 2020-02-09 682,717 2010 taizhou prefectural zhejiang 2020-02-03 5,968,838 2010 hangzhou prefectural zhejiang 2020-02-04 9,806,000 2017 ezhou prefectural hubei 2020-02-04 1,048,668 2010 fuzhou prefectural fujian 2020-02-04 7,660,000 2017 xuzhou prefectural jiangsu 2020-02-04 2020-02-08 8,577,225 2010 jingdezhen prefectural jiangxi 2020-02-04 2020-03-31 1,655,000 2015 harbin prefectural heilongjiang 2020-02-04 10,635,971 2010 yicheng,zhumadian district henan 2020-02-04 721,723 2010 one person per household every five days xincheng, xi'an district shaanxi 2020-02-04 589,739 2010 chang'an, xi'an district shaanxi 2020-02-04 1,083,285 2010 yanta, xi'an district shaanxi 2020-02-05 1,178,529 2010 lianhu, xi'an district shaanxi 2020-02-05 712,300 2015 ningbo prefectural zhejiang 2020-02-05 8,202,000 2018 hailing, taizhou district jiangsu 2020-02-05 594,656 2010 hefei prefectural anhui 2020-02-05 7,965,300 2017 fuyang prefectural anhui 2020-02-05 2020-02-08 7,599,913 2010 benxi prefectural liaoning 2020-02-05 1,709,538 2017 ngawa autonomousprefecture sichuan 2020-02-05 930,100 2015 garzê autonomousprefecture sichuan 2020-02-05 1,164,900 2015 liuzhou prefectural guangxi 2020-02-05 3,758,700 2010 guilin prefectural guangxi 2020-02-05 4,961,600 2015 jinchengjiang,hechi district guangxi 2020-02-05 330,131 2010 one person per household every day jiangxi province – 2020-02-06 2020-03-31 45,200,000 2013 xianyang prefectural shaanxi 2020-02-06 5,096,001 2010 jinzhou prefectural liaoning 2020-02-06 3,070,000 2010 kuancheng,changchun district jilin 2020-02-06 680,631 2010 tangshan prefectural hebei 2020-02-07 7,935,800 2018 baodi, tianjin district tianjin 2020-02-09 799,057 2010 hubei province – 2020-02-16 2020-03-13~2020-04-08 59,020,000 2018 suifenhe county heilongjiang 2020-04-08 69,607 2018 one person per household every three days all 233,511,355 sum of census data and population estimates above closed management in jintan district, changzhou, jiangsu, where citizens are allowed outside for purchasing once every two days with permit.some areas took road closure measures to avoid the spread of covid-19. pictured is a road closure notice on tianhe road, yucheng neibourhood, yuhuan, zhejiang.a slogan for road closure in lyushunkou district, dalian, liaoning.residents in wuhan had to buy daily necessities and food across the fence gate due to their community lockdown. closed management of communities many areas across china have implemented what is called "closed management" (chinese: 封闭式管理; pinyin: fēngbìshì guǎnlǐ) on a community-basis. in most of the areas where this came into effect, villages, communities, and units in most areas would only keep one entrance and exit point open,