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President Xi Jinping Summons Up Courage to Visit Wuhan for First Time Since Coronavirus Outbreak

The Chinese president was notably absent in the early days of the crisis. Now he is back, front and center as new coronavirus infection rates plummet.

After being conspicuously absent from the public eye during the early days of the novel coronavirus outbreak, President Xi Jinping of China has made his first trip to Wuhan since the sickness erupted in the city. Xi’s trip came as the rate of infection in China continued to slow, with just 19 new cases of the virus reported Tuesday, following an unprecedented lockdown of 500 million people, or some 6 percent of the world’s population. Xi’s visit is a tentative sign of a return to normalcy in China as other parts of the world struggle to contain their outbreaks. The state news agency said Xi visited a hastily built hospital where he encouraged staff to “firm up confidence in defeating the epidemic.” He then visited Wuhan residents under quarantine at home, Xinhua reported. As of Tuesday, there have been more than 80,000 cases of the virus confirmed across China, around 68,000 of which were in Hubei, which has Wuhan as its capital.