Passenger departures resume after 34-day halt due to virus outbreak

Shijiazhuang Railway Station finally returned to bustling normality on Monday after seeing no passenger departures for 34 days due to a COVID-19 outbreak that struck Hebei's provincial capital this year.

About 9,000 passengers had boarded trains at the station by Tuesday afternoon, it said.

Yu Cheng happily boarded a high-speed train around 8 am on Tuesday, heading home to Wuxi, Jiangsu province, after an extended business trip.

He bought his ticket after the station reopened at 7:30 pm on Monday.

Shijiazhuang, which was hit heavily by a cluster of infections from Jan 2, imposed a lockdown, with no one allowed to take trains out of the city, amid comprehensive measures to contain the spread of novel coronavirus. People could still arrive in the city by train.

"It's so exciting, I can finally go back home," Yu, 25, said. He arrived in the city on Dec 28 for a 12-day business trip but stayed longer due to the lockdown.

"I thought I was going to spend Spring Festival by myself in a strange city, even though my parents were looking forward to me returning home," he said.

"Now I can reunite with my family for the new year. I'm so happy!"

Normal transport has gradually resumed in Shijiazhuang in recent days as the city has contained the outbreak. On Monday, the city government said expressways and train services out of the city would resume operation.

"Cutting off transport links with the outside when the epidemic was developing was to prevent its further spread," Shi Jian, head of the Hebei Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention's emergency management office, said on Monday night.

The province previously recorded up to 90 new confirmed cases a day, but it has seen no new confirmed cases in recent days, showing the measures effectively contained the outbreak, Shi said, adding that was why transport could gradually resume.

He said other major measures like closed management of residential communities and centralized quarantine for people at higher risk, such as close contacts of COVID-19 patients, had also contributed to the good result.

"We can say that this epidemic has now entered its end stage," Shi said.

Although normality is returning, cross-infection precautions remain in place. Regular disinfection of the station and trains, and health checks for employees, are being conducted to guarantee safe travel, the station said.

Flights out of Shijiazhuang remain suspended, along with long-distance cross-city or provincial bus services, Vice-Mayor Meng Xianghong said on Monday afternoon.