While schools are still closed, companies have opened offices and employees are back at work

Food habits have changed with people avoiding meat and preferring vegetables

BENGALURU/NEW DELHI: The coronavirus pandemic is bringing the world’s production to a grinding halt, but factories in China, where it all began, have slowly begun to buzz with activity again. With fewer new Covid-19 infections reported in recent days, life in the country is gradually — and cautiously — returning to normal, say Indians who stayed put in China through its two-month lockdown While schools are still closed, companies have opened offices and employees have started to resume work, but precautionary measures like temperature screening have become part of daily routine. Sajitha M, a mechanical engineer in Tianjin, a port city in northeast China, said her firm checks temperature of employees twice a day. “Every individual is required to submit a report on a mobile app on daily temperature, mode of transport and health of family members,” she told TOI.Online meetings, rather than in-person ones, is something firms are sticking to. Eating lunch at desk is another ‘new normal’ now. “It was frowned upon earlier but now the office canteen is closed and people just eat quietly at their workstations,” said the 50-year-old who hails from Kerala.At home as well, social isolation is real. Sajitha’s husband has been unable to return since he left for India in January while their son is studying in New York. But she is relieved that the crisis has passed — Tianjin has recorded 136 positive cases and three deaths. “My employer gave us masks, otherwise I would not have been able to get any as they were out of stock. So were the sanitisers.”While schools and universities are still closed, restaurants are opening in some places. At the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak in Hubei’s Wuhan, restrictions are being lifted, one at a time. After so long, a walk outside feels like a luxury, said Avishak Chatterjee, a student of Wuhan University of Science and Technology (WUST), who had ventured out of his campus for the first time this week since the shutdown. “I didn’t go far as there is police barricading in the area to ensure no one leaves,” he told TOI.Food habits have also changed, said Chatterjee, adding that he, like many others, is now avoiding meat and preferring to eat vegetables and eggs. Classes have resumed online and the varsity monitors their temperature daily. And after so long, one can now hear a bit of honking on the roads, Chatterjee said. “There was silence on the streets earlier, broken only by vehicles that came to disinfect the area,” he said.A senior scientist in Wuhan added that metros and local buses are now running but with restrictions. “People have to present health certificate and work permits to board,” he told TOI, adding that some companies have resumed operations but with less than half of their staff.