Life under lockdown: Wuhan's windows, balconies and rooftops

Life under lockdown: Wuhan's windows, balconies and rooftops

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The central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus is believed to have originated, remains under lockdown after more than 50 days, even as the world's attention has shifted to other hotspots.

. Wuhan, China. Reuters
Children play football while a man gets his hair cut on the roof terrace of a building.

Reuters pictures show - through windows and on balconies and rooftops - how Wuhan residents holed up in their apartments are getting on with their lives. People can be seen hanging laundry. Children play. One man eats noodles. Another smokes a cigarette.

. Wuhan, China. Reuters
High-rise residential buildings stand in Wuhan.

Chinese officials and some public health experts have credited the draconian confinement measures on a city of 11 million, and much of Hubei province, of which it is the capital, with slowing the spread of the disease and turning the tide of infection across China.

Other countries, including Iran, Italy and the United States, are struggling to manage their outbreaks.

. Wuhan, China. Reuters
A man wearing a face mask stands on a balcony above closed shops blocked by barricades.

But even as the number of new reported cases falls in Wuhan, people in the city remain suspended in an isolated new normal.

Residents are forbidden from venturing out of their homes even to buy food, which must be delivered. Schools and most shops remain shut, and roads are virtually empty.

. Wuhan, China. Reuters
Men look outside the window of their buildings at a residential compound.

On Tuesday, Wuhan closed the last of 14 makeshift hospitals set up to treat and isolate patients after the outbreak had overwhelmed the city's healthcare system.

In a dramatic sign that the situation is improving, President Xi Jinping made a high-profile visit to the stricken city on Tuesday, his first since the outbreak began.

. Wuhan, China. Reuters
A man leans out of a window.

Nearly 50,000 coronavirus cases have been reported in Wuhan, with 2,423 deaths, making it the location hardest-hit by far in an epidemic that has infected more than 119,000 people globally and killed nearly 4,300.

The outbreak has also exacted an unquantifiable psychological toll on people in Wuhan as families cope with loss, children are unable to go to school or play outside, and livelihoods are imperilled as people can't go to work.

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Slideshow

A woman stands on the terrace of a building at a residential compound.
. Wuhan, CHINA. Reuters

A woman stands on the terrace of a building at a residential compound.

A man smokes a cigarette by the window.
. Wuhan, CHINA. Reuters

A man smokes a cigarette by the window.

A man on the terrace of a building speaks to someone below.
. Wuhan, CHINA. Reuters

A man on the terrace of a building speaks to someone below.

A child plays next to adults sitting on the roof terrace of a building.
. Wuhan, CHINA. Reuters

A child plays next to adults sitting on the roof terrace of a building.

A man walks on the rooftop of a building.
. Wuhan, CHINA. Reuters

A man walks on the rooftop of a building.

A woman hangs laundry.
. Wuhan, CHINA. Reuters

A woman hangs laundry.

A woman places food outside.
. Wuhan, CHINA. Reuters

A woman places food outside.

A man eats noodles.
. Wuhan, CHINA. Reuters

A man eats noodles.

A woman knits on the terrace of a building.
. Wuhan, CHINA. Reuters

A woman knits on the terrace of a building.

A man stands on the terrace of a building.
. Wuhan, CHINA. Reuters

A man stands on the terrace of a building.

A woman hangs laundry.
. Wuhan, CHINA. Reuters

A woman hangs laundry.

A woman looks at her mobile phone on a balcony near a man standing by a window.
. Wuhan, CHINA. Reuters

A woman looks at her mobile phone on a balcony near a man standing by a window.

A man stands on a terrace.
. Wuhan, CHINA. Reuters

A man stands on a terrace.

A man looks out from the terrace of a building.
. Wuhan, CHINA. Reuters

A man looks out from the terrace of a building.

A man checks his mobile phone by the window of a residential building.
. Wuhan, China. Reuters

A man checks his mobile phone by the window of a residential building.