Chinese city eases virus lockdown but life is far from normal

Street vendors wearing face masks wait for customers in Huanggang, in China’s central Hubei province on March 26, 2020. - AFP)

HUANGGANG (AFP): Banners warning that playing cards together is suicide and guards yelling at crowds to separate: a Chinese city near the coronavirus ground zero remains far from normal even after emerging from a two-month lockdown.

Huanggang, home to 7.5 million people, was among the worst-affected areas in Hubei, the province where the new coronavirus first emerged late last year before morphing into the deadly pandemic now raging across the planet.