Uncertainty about the virus for sellers of the Chinese Year of the Ox

WUHAN, China (AP) – Vibrant red lanterns roam an alley in Wuhan, China, but customers only come out. On the corner, Gong Linhua recalled the previous years when his shop was full and the outer street was full of carts for snacks.

“This is the first time I’ve been working in this situation for 20 years,” said the Lunar New Year decorations salesman. At 60, he is contemplating retirement if the economy does not pick up.

Even in China, where COVID-19 is largely under control and economic growth accelerated to 6.5% in the last three months of 2020, the recovery is uneven and new outbreaks are affecting businesses. .

The winter has caused the largest resurgence in China to date, with more than 2,000 new cases and two deaths in January. The figures are small compared to most other countries, but enough for concerned officials to slow down travel and activities for the lunar new year, one of the biggest holidays of the year.

This is a blow to airlines, trains, hotels and restaurants and an investment in the last major holidays in October, when tourism rose again. Near the bottom of the food chain are shops stocked with ornaments for the Year of the Ox.

With about two weeks to go until New Year’s Day on February 12, Wang Cuilan was optimistic, although sales have been about half a normal year so far.

She and her husband operate an alley shop near Gong’s store for about 20 years. Businesses have fallen on hotels and entertainment venues, their customers with big tickets, so decorating orders have also fallen, he said.

This year is worse for sales than the previous one. Wuhan, the city that suffered the weight of the pandemic in China, was closed just two days before the lunar new year in 2020. By then, most of the rat year items had already been sold. .

But a few customers arrived last week, after a brief scare of viruses in Wuhan kept people at home earlier this month.

“If the epidemic situation stays stable and if the weather is good, I think they will run out every last ten or more days,” Wang said.

Business was not the only thing on his mind. The lunar new year is when families get together. For many migrant workers, who leave their hometown for better-paying jobs, it is their trip every year.

Wang wondered if his 26-year-old daughter, who works in neighboring Hunan Province, will miss New Year’s Eve at home for the second year in a row.

The government has not banned holiday travel, but strongly discourages it. Many cities require multiple negative COVID test results for outsiders, both before and after their arrival.

“He wants to come back,” Wang said. “It will return if the government does not take stricter measures.”

Travel by car, plane and train appear to have fallen by around 75% during the first three days of the holiday travel period, which began on Thursday, the Ministry of Transport and state media reported. The ministry has predicted that travel will fall by 40% over the 40-day period compared to 2019.

Economic forecasts say the overall impact may be limited, as factories, shops and farms may continue to operate instead of stopping for a week or more, as they usually do during the holidays.

When sunset fell in Wuhan, the Lunar New Year vendors began to carry their wares, plucking giant lanterns one by one from the outer racks and loading them into stuffed toy ox boxes. Wang’s son and nephew helped pack his store.

Items that are not sold will probably be canceled and discarded. In the Chinese zodiac, an animal appears only once every 12 years.

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Associated Press writer Joe McDonald in Beijing contributed to this report.