Exhibition on COVID-19 battle opens in Wuhan

Visitors look at a group sculpture depicting medical personnel from the People's Liberation Army supporting Wuhan, Hubei province, during the height of the COVID-19 outbreak, as the exhibition opens on Thursday. Zhu Xingxin/China Daily

An exhibition opened on Thursday in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, depicting the endeavors and achievements made in COVID-19 control and prevention in the city in the first half of the year, as normal life has been restored in the city after the novel coronavirus was effectively suppressed there.

The three-month show, hosted by the Hubei provincial government, includes more than 1,100 photos, more than 1,000 objects, 45 videos and 18 interactive sites for visitors. Recent technologies such as virtual reality have also been adopted to present vivid impressions to viewers.

Images and models of key elements during the fight against the epidemic between January and April were presented in the exhibition, including intensive care units that treated severe COVID-19 patients; Huoshenshan Hospital, a hospital built in 10 days to specially admit COVID-19 patients in Wuhan; and temporary hospitals that were created from exhibition centers, sports stadiums and warehouses.

The exhibition was staged following success in bringing the epidemic well under control in Wuhan, the hardest hit city by the virus in Hubei, as well as in the whole country. Just 11 new confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported on the Chinese mainland on Wednesday, including one locally transmitted, according to the National Health Commission.

Following the epidemic, Wuhan imposed a lockdown that lasted nearly 80 days, and was lifted on April 8 after the daily number of newly reported COVID-19 cases dropped to zero. Following the lockdown of Wuhan in January, China mobilized the whole country to help epidemic control in Hubei province, including sending more than 42,000 medical workers from across the country to the province.

Huang Yanhua, a head nurse at the Hubei Cancer Hospital in Wuhan, said she was really moved and happy to see everything has returned to normal in the city.

Huang said she was assigned to Leishenshan Hospital, which was completed at the height of the epidemic in Wuhan in February to exclusively receive COVID-19 patients, and spent nearly two months treating patients there.

"We saved 68 COVID-19 patients. I felt scared when treating the patients then, but now I feel honored for what I did," she said. "Wuhan is now peaceful, and this makes me very happy. I feel really proud of my country."

Zhang Zhaotang, an 85-year-old veteran who received treatment for one month at Huoshenshan Hospital after being infected with the novel coronavirus, said he was grateful for the doctors and nurses who saved his life.

"When hospitalized, I asked the doctors who treated me whether they were scared or not, and they told me no," he said while attending the exhibition. "I think they were also fearless warriors, just like us when fighting on the battlefield."