Sunderland teacher says he is glad he didn't return to UK as Wuhan's 76 day lockdown ends

Chris Hill, a foreign language teacher originally from Washington, lives with his wife and four-year-old daughter around 10 minutes walk away from the market where the global pandemic is believed to have originated.

They spent 76 days in lockdown.

In January, as the city began to shut down, he considered returning on one of several repatriation flights to the UK, but opted against it after uncertainty over whether his family would be able to join him.

Mr Hill said: “Wuhan has been under lockdown for around two-and-a-half months. If I was in England, I would just be going into lockdown, (making it) five, six, seven months in total.

"I'd take the three months over seven any day."

While some restrictions have now been lifted to allow people to travel in and out of Wuhan, residents are can still only leave home for two hours at a time.

He continued: “People who do live in Wuhan that were outside of the city when the lockdown took place, it allows them back in.

"But the restrictions that I have of going out for two hours per day, those are still in place until the end of the month and then they're going to reassess.

"Most of the businesses are still closed because with the two-hour time limit, there's no point in businesses opening for most of the day. So everyone just stays at home."

Mr Hill said he expected to be entirely free to leave his home by the middle of May – almost four months on from the start of the city's lockdown. He has continued working, but says teaching online had been hard,

He said: "My wife still works, my daughter is being a hyperactive four-year-old who wants to go out but can't.

Mr Hill said he was in regular contact with friends and family back home, who were "going crazy" just two weeks into the UK's own restrictive measures.

Having experienced it for two-and-a-half months himself, Mr Hill has advice for those struggling with being stuck at home.

He said: "What you like doing as a hobby - do it as much as you can.

"Well, not drinking. That's just stupid."

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