Chinese clubbers dance in Wuhan disco as coronavirus ground zero has ‘NO recorded cases’ just as second wave hits UK
CHINESE clubbers have been pictured partying and dancing in Wuhan as the city where the pandemic originated recorded no new local cases.
It comes as Britain is braced for a second wave as coronavirus comes back with the threat of a new lockdown now looming nationwide.
⚠️ Read our coronavirus live blog for the latest news & updates
Pictures show nightclubs heaving in the Chinese city, which has a population of 11million, with partygoers crammed together without a care for the pandemic.
The scenes look like the sort of thing you would have seen around the world before anyone had heard of Covid-19.
It appears the city, which was the pandemic's ground zero last December, has almost returned to normal as the virus continues to burn its way across the world.
There have been no recorded cases of community transmission in Wuhan since May.
China's mainland has not recorded any local cases for 33 consecutive days as it appears the Communist state has almost wiped out the coronavirus.
It did however record 14 new imported cases of coronavirus on Friday - bringing China's overall total to 85,269 and 4,634 deaths.
Experts believe the virus originated in Wuhan, possibly at a so-called wet market where it jumped from animals to humans.
From there the virus spread across China before being carried to almost every country in the world.
Coronavirus has so far killed almost 1million people worldwide.
Questions have been asked whether China has been honest about its case count and death tool as figures soared in the US and Europe.
Whistleblowers have also claimed China has downplayed the impacts of the coronavirus - which it has been suggested could be 14 times higher.
China has seen its official daily case count below 100 almost every day since the end of March after becoming the first nation hit by the virus.
But the emergence of the coronavirus also brought reports of doctors being detained and harassed after trying to use social media to raise the alarm,
US President Donald Trump has regularly criticised China as he accused them of covering up the virus and not being honest with the figures.
China however continues to boast its successes in handling of the pandemic, and is now touting a vaccine could be ready by November.
The Communist Party currently has four jabs in the third and final stages of trials, of which at least three have been available for emergency use by key workers since July.
Wu Guizhen, the head biosafety expert at China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said the vaccine will soon be able to "ordinary people".
Three of China's vaccines are being developed by state-run firm National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) along with US-listed Sinovac Biotech.
And as China recorded just a handful of new cases, Britain suffered its biggest rise in 19 weeks as Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the country is facing a second wave.
The 4,422 new cases came as the government last week introduced tough new rules to try to stop the surge.
A second national lockdown in some form is now looming, but that hasn't stopped some Brits from hitting the town - with university students stepping out in Leeds.
The recent rise in infections could see Britain face six months of on-off lockdowns, with the PM set to announce a two-week "circuit breaker" to tackle the ongoing pandemic.
A government source told The Sun Online the UK could face short, sharp lockdowns for the next six months until a vaccine is ready to tackle the killer respiratory disease.
The looming two-week shutdown will see restaurants and leisure facilities closed while schools and offices stay open.
Members of Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) have suggested using the "circuit breaker" tactic repeatedly to quash waves of infections.
Number 10 has been told by the government's Joint Biosecurity Centre, which monitors infections, that Britain is six weeks behind Spain, which recorded 239 deaths on Thursday.
It comes as Rishi Sunak warned Boris Johnson not to sacrifice Britain's economic recovery by going too far with new lockdown rules.
Mr Johnson said a second wave was “inevitable” yet insisted he will not impose the same strict lockdown as March.
But he warned new restrictions are needed because the “rule of six” hasn’t done enough to quell the virus — with cases now doubling every week, and the R rate rising to between 1.1 and 1.4.
Most read in News
The PM said: "I don’t want to go into bigger lockdown measures at all, we want to keep schools open and it is fantastic the schools have gone back in the way they have.
"We want to keep the economy open as far as we possibly can, we want to keep businesses going.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
“The only way we can do that is obviously if people follow the guidance.”
He added; "We are seeing it in France, in Spain, across Europe – it has been absolutely, I’m afraid, inevitable we were going to see it in this country.”
