Local residents of Wuhan began flocking to noodle shops for a steaming hot bowl of the city's culinary signature on Thursday, after more than two months being shut indoors due to the coronavirus.

"Re gan" - meaning 'hot' and 'dry' - noodles is a signature of Wuhan, with the curly flour noodles topped with chilly pepper and pickled carrot and mixed with sesame paste. But since the city's lockdown in late January this year, local residents haven't had a bite at their favourite stalls for more than two months.

"It is not easy," Wang Yanbing, a Wuhan local resident said to Reuters while eating the noodles, "In the current situation, it is indeed not easy to have a bowl of noodles outside."

In a small alley on Thursday morning, people have already started queueing in line outside a re gan noodles shop where blue barricades were put up to separate the shop and customers for social distancing.

"Not used to it (life again with hot dry noodles). Already gotten used to life without noodles before. Life at that time was with less joy," a local resident said after staying indoor for more than two months.

China has announced that the lockdown in Wuhan will be lifted on April 8.

The country reported 36 new cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, 35 of which are imported cases.

The disease has infected more than 935,000 people around the world and killed some 47,000 of them.