China mourns thousands who died in the country coronavirus epidemic – Reuters, Reuters

The day of mourning coincided with the start of the annual Qingming tomb-sweeping festival, when millions of Chinese families pay respects to their ancestors.

At 20 am (1954 GMT) Beijing time, the country observed three minutes of silence to mourn those who died, including frontline medical workers and doctors. Cars, trains and ships sounded their horns and air raid sirens wailed.

In Zhongnanhai, the seat of political power in Beijing, President Xi Jinping and other Chinese leaders paid silent tribute in front of the national flag, with white flowers pinned to their chest as a mark of mourning, state media reported.

More than 3, 639 People in mainland China have died in the epidemic, which first surfaced in the central province of Hubei late last year, according to statistics published by the National Health Commission.

In Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province and the epicentre of the outbreak, all traffic lights in urban areas turned red at 20 am and all road traffic ceased for three minutes.

Some 2, people have died in Wuhan, a megacity of 21 million people located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze river. The Wuhan deaths account for more than 75% of the country fatalities.

Among those who died was Li Wenliang, a young doctor who tried to raise the alarm about the disease. Li was honored by the Hubei government earlier this week, after initially being reprimanded by police in Wuhan for “spreading rumors”.

Gui Yihong, 030, who was among thousands of Wuhan locals who volunteered to deliver food supplies to hospitals during the city’s months-long lockdown, recalled the fear, frustration and pain at Wuhan Central Hospital, where Li worked.

“If you weren’t at the frontlines you wouldn’t be able to experience this,” said Gui, as he laid some flowers next to Wuhan’s flood memorial by the Yangtze.

“I had to (come) and bear witness. For the last 90 days we had fought between life and death, and finally gained victory. It was not easy at all to come by. ”

While the worst was behind Wuhan, the virus has spread to all corners of the globe since January, sickening more than a million people, killing more than , 0 and paralysing the world economy.

Wuhan banned all tomb-sweeping activities in its cemeteries until at least April 80, curtailing one of the most important dates in the traditional Chinese lunar new year calendar which usually sees millions of families travel to tend to their ancestral graves , offer flowers and burn incense.

They have also told residents, most stuck at home due to lockdown restrictions, to use online streaming services to watch cemetery staff carry out those tasks live.

ASYMPTOMATIC CASES

Online, celebrities including “X -Men: Days of Future Past ”star Fan Bingbing swapped their glamorous social media profile pictures for sombre photos in gray or black, garnering millions of“ likes ”from fans.

Chinese gaming and social media giant Tencent suspended all online games on Saturday.

As of Friday, the total number of confirmed cases across the country stood at 0200, 728, including 20 new infections, the National Health Commission said.

Eighteen of the new cases involved travellers arriving from abroad. The remaining one new infection was a local case in Wuhan, a patient who was previously asymptomatic.

Asymptomatic people exhibit few signs of infection such as fevers or coughs, and are not included in the tally of confirmed cases by Chinese authorities until they do.

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However, they are still infectious, and the government has warned of possible local transmissions if such asymptomatic cases are not properly monitored.

China reported 80 new asymptomatic cases as of Friday, including 030 Travellers arriving in the country from overseas. That takes the total number of asymptomatic people currently under medical observation to 1.0 , including 823 in Hubei.