Wuhan – one year on
From Our Own Correspondent
BBC
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 23 January 2021
⏱️ 29 minutes
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Summary
A year ago Wuhan imposed a lockdown on its citizens, as reports filtered through of the first human-to-human transmission of a new strain of Coronavirus. A delegation from the World Health Organisation has now arrived in Wuhan to investigate the origins of the outbreak. Robin Brant returned to the wet food market in the city where life has returned to normal - almost. Washington was transformed into a fortress this week – both for visitors and residents alike in the lead up to the inauguration of President Joe Biden. Aleem Maqbool reflects on the contrast between the ceremony this week – and that of 2016. Russia's opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, returned to Moscow having recovered from a nerve-agent attack, which he blames on the Kremlin. He was arrested upon arrival and placed in pre-trial detention for 30 days in what could have been seen as a blow to the opposition. But – undeterred, they had something else up their sleeve, as Steve Rosenberg reports. Last weekend bouts of violence erupted on the streets in over a dozen neighbourhoods across Tunisia, with young people clashing in the streets with the police. But what’s behind the latest unrest? Ten years on from the revolution which triggered the Arab Spring uprisings, the slow pace of economic reform and high unemployment has caused widespread discontent as Rana Jawad reports. India began the world’s largest vaccination roll-out last weekend, aiming to vaccinate 1.3 billion people. The arrival of millions of doses of the two approved vaccines was greeted with jubilation and a festive atmosphere in cities across India. But there is still some reticence in taking up the vaccine, finds Rajini Vaidyanathan.
Presenter: Kate Adie Producer: Serena Tarling
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:05.0 | Today the American President's inauguration on Wednesday was dignified and traditional except |
| 0:11.8 | for being at the heart of a massive military security operation, |
| 0:15.8 | our correspondent contemplates the reasons. In Russia, the opposition leader Alexei Navalny made his return. We ask why are their jitters behind the walls of the Kremlin? |
| 0:28.0 | It's ten years since the Arab Spring first burst into bloom in Tunisia, but today Tunisian... the over a billion souls, the vaccine rollout has started, but there's reticence amongst the millions. |
| 0:47.0 | First to China, and back to the root of the COVID pandemic tree, a wet food market in Wuhan. |
| 0:56.1 | It's a year since the city imposed a lockdown on its citizens, |
| 1:00.1 | an unfamiliar phrase at the time, and reports seeped out of a new virus. |
| 1:06.4 | Last week a delegation from the World Health Organization arrived to investigate the |
| 1:10.8 | origins of the outbreak, an investigation that's been met with heavy obstruction |
| 1:15.8 | and obfuscation. Robin Brant headed for the market. |
| 1:21.4 | If you need new glasses or just the lenses, I know a good place. |
| 1:25.0 | Dozens of shops all in one location. |
| 1:28.0 | It's on the first floor of a building in Wuhan, |
| 1:31.0 | right by a busy intersection where a police officer directs the traffic. |
| 1:35.2 | There's a school next door. I saw children playing outside when I was there a few days ago. |
| 1:40.3 | There's a hospital down the road too. You can only look at the shops on the first floor though. |
| 1:46.0 | The ground floor market is boarded up. A bright blue wall surrounds it. Guards man several gates. You can't get into Huanam market anymore. I peered in though through a gap in the main gate and I saw |
| 1:59.3 | empty stalls shutters down on shop fronts. It's been like this for over a year now. |
| 2:05.0 | There are a few white polystyrene boxes to see and what looked like oblong nets for storing live shellfish. |
| 2:12.0 | But Huanha market is empty and lifeless. |
| 2:15.0 | It's been like this since the days after a cluster of cases of a new type of coronavirus |
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