In a shocking development, thousands of revelers gathered in an open-air water park for a musical festival in the Wuhan city of China.
While the world is still fighting to sustain to Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, it seems China has got back to its normal without any fear. People were seen without masks with no adherence to social distancing norm.
The Wuhan Maya Beach Water Park saw a huge gathering of partygoers in swimsuits bunched together shoulder to shoulder, waving to the beat of the music while cooling down in hip-high water. With hardly any space to float around, people were seen relaxing on inflatable rubber tubes that packed the pool to the brim.
Wuhan was the epicentre of COVID-19 outbreak in China with almost 60% of the total cases coming from Wuhan. There were 84,871 cases in China. In order to contain the outbreak, the Government imposed a lockdown on January 23, 2020. All the modes of public transport and international flights were cancelled. People were confined to their homes and only emergency services were allowed. After 76 days, the lockdown was concluded on April 2020.
Later, on May 12, 2020, 6 new cases of COVID-19 were reported. The city quickly put in place ambitious plans to test its entire population of 11 million people. The outbreak was soon brought under control.
By June, night markets were allowed to re-open. In July 2020, cinema halls, multiplexes, shopping malls, parks, libraries and museums were allowed to open at 50% capacity. Large gatherings were also given a green signal.
Wuhan Happy Valley, the theme park that owns the Wuhan Maya Beach Water Park reopened in late June 2020. Currently, the water park receives an average of 15,000 daily visitors during weekends and is offering half-price discounts to some visitors.
An Associate Professor in Infectious Diseases at the Australian National University – Sanjaya Senanayake has cautioned on taking the pandemic lightly.
Speaking on the occasion, Senanayake said, “The problem is we haven’t eradicated Covid-19, and what that means is that as long as its not eradicated, there’s still the risk of having it introduced, whether from overseas or elsewhere.”
He also gave the example of New Zealand which didn’t saw a single case till 3 months but then it witnessed a spike of new cases last week. He also stated that as per a study from London, 10-20% of people with COVID-19 are responsible for about 80% of cases
Senanayake also said, “So if you’re putting large groups of people together you really have to be careful. Even if one person has the virus, you’re in for some rough times.”
Globally, there have been 2,18,26,342 cases and 7,73,152 casualties. United States (U.S.) is the worst affected country with 54,36,026 cases and 1,70,155 casualties. Brazil is the second worst affected nation having 33,59,570 cases and 1,08,536 casualties. India is the third most affected country reporting 27,02,742 cases and 51,797 casualties.
