The return of the river was bitterly sweet. At first, Guo Jing was sitting quietly on a bench. Then she did what she had dreamed of for the long weeks in the apartment, she took off her mouth guard and screamed out over the water.

Several other newly released Wuhan residents agreed and after a while a feeling of new energy emerged, says the women's rights activist in The Guardian magazine. This was topped off by the fact that she could buy a package of yogurt on her own before her two hours in the outdoors were over.

How to wake the city?

But, Guo Jing notes, leaving his neighborhood is one thing. Reviving an entire city to life is a much bigger task.

She is not alone in that conclusion. Both journalists and Wuhan residents talk about closed shops, sparse traffic, fences and continued erected yellow and blue plastic hammocks in the electric millionaire city.

"If we do not continue to fight, then what is there in the world to fight for," Waiwai, who owns a small cafe that was reopened the other day, tells AFP news agency.

But at his cafe, so far, you can only buy coffee for pickup, as strict rules on social exclusion still exist. Public places are being disinfected and the authorities have ordered people to continue to wear mouthguards and avoid crowds, all in order to avoid re-attaching the virus.