Wuhan residents are enjoying a renewed sense of freedom after 76 days of lockdown following the emergence and outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
Voicing joy and excitement from behind face masks, tens of thousands of people fled Wuhan after the Chinese city's 76-day coronavirus lockdown was lifted.
Streets in the city of 11 million people were clogged with traffic and long lines formed at the airport, train and bus stations as thousands streamed out of the city to return to homes and jobs elsewhere.
Up to 55,000 people are expected to leave Wuhan on Wednesday just by train, according to government estimates.
Steady streams of cars were on the roads heading out of the city , after barricades on its outskirts were dismantled with the ban on outbound travel being lifted at midnight.
Ferries, trams and taxis resumed operations and the airport also opened again for domestic flights, with queueing passengers in protective wear wheeling cases.
A group of medics leaving Wuhan hugged their colleagues from the city goodbye as they prepared to board flights home.
Wuhan led the world with an unprecedented quarantine lockdown on January 23 in a bid to stop the spread of the then-mysterious respiratory virus.
Chinese disease control officials said in January that the virus likely leapt from wildlife to humans at a Wuhan market that sold wild animals for food.
The rest of surrounding Hubei province quickly followed Wuhan, cutting tens of millions of people off from the world.
As the virus spread rapidly around the globe, many countries imposed similar draconian measures that have forced around half of humanity into some form of lockdown.
