Yesterday, the Chinese Government reported something extraordinary: there were just five new cases of coronavirus in the city where it all began, Wuhan.

Authorities also announced this week they'd closed all 14 field hospitals set up in the city to treat coronavirus patients.

It came as low-risk residents of Hubei were told they would soon be able to start moving around the province again, and key industries were given the all clear to return to work, albeit with restrictions.

"Wuhan will win, Hubei will win, the whole country will win the battle," China's leader Xi Jinping declared on a highly stage-managed visit to Wuhan this week.

It appears he's got a reason to be confident. China is already beginning to see some success from the Government's measures.

Across China, only a handful of new cases are being reported each day, and many are in people who have flown back into China from overseas.

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Given the cover-ups, wrong information and underreported figures in the initial weeks — which helped turn a local outbreak in Wuhan into a global pandemic — scepticism of the Government's infection rates is fair.

But on the ground, the broad and restrictive nature of the outbreak measures make it easier to understand how authorities have managed to curtail the viral spread — at least for now.

The daily toll of isolation

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 2 minutes 42 seconds 2 m 42 s After 2 weeks of quarantine, China correspondent Bill Birtles roams the streets of Beijing for the first time.

Take coronavirus patient Wu Di, 34, for example. His case shows how the comprehensive measures on the ground have worked, but also how much of a toll the virus has taken on people in Wuhan.

He took to social media to beg for hospital admission after running a high fever for a week during the peak outbreak period.

Then, finally, Mr Wu was admitted to a hospital before being transferred to Huoshenshan — the specialist hospital constructed in two weeks and run by China's military.

Aside from his mother-in-law, who was in the same ward, Mr Wu hasn't seen his other family members for more than a month.

He's worried about whether they have all survived.

This week Mr Wu was discharged from Huoshenshan.

But despite his condition improving, Mr Wu isn't free to go home.

"I feel great now, but a CT scan of my lungs still shows the presence of the virus," he told the ABC.

"I don't think I'm completely cleared of it yet."

Authorities have now moved him to a collective isolation centre, which is a dorm with other discharged patients, for 14 days, to create an extra time buffer before he's released back to his family.

Wu Di and his mother-in-law aren't free to go home just yet. ( Supplied: Wu Di )

Both his parents were infected as well as his mother-in-law. He fears a lack of information about his father in recent days could mean he died, but family members are reluctant to tell him.

"Miraculously though, my wife is safe," he said.

"Everyone in the isolation centre is calm. We need to eat well, sleep well and make ourselves stronger."

If he is well enough after his time in the centre, he'll return home, where he will be made to stay inside his apartment for another 14 days for observation.

China's restrictive measures have come at a cost

People are slowly emerging from their homes in China and returning to some semblance of normal life. ( Reuters: Aly Song )

The seven weeks and counting of restrictions in Hubei province have left many residents bored, anxious and depressed.

But the restrictions do appear to have worked in terms of stalling the outbreak in China, even though they came too late.

In fact, movement restrictions, city-entry bans and mandatory self-isolation for travellers across the rest of China have largely contained the virus in other provinces.

And those aren't the only measures being put into place. Right now, Beijing is setting up a massive isolation centre near its main airport for travellers arriving from outbreak countries.

Meanwhile, Chinese telecommunications companies — all state-owned — are submitting movement data for government apps that track where people have been.

Wuhan locals who recovered from coronavirus were allowed to leave rehabilitation centres after a 14-day quarantine and return home. ( Xinhua via AP: Xiong Qi )

And in some compounds, people are made to scan QR codes. If they're shown to have violated home isolation restrictions, they're denied entry.

"These aggressive efforts to prevent the spread of the virus have not been pretty," authors John Daley and Matt Cowgilll wrote for the Grattan Institute's blog this week.

"They've come at a real economic cost to many households and businesses — but they appear to have been successful."

Some bars have begun to re-open in Beijing as restrictions ease. ( ABC News: Brant Cumming )

It's hard to know the full consequences these measures will have for households. But even those not directly affected by the virus have had their lives turned upside down.

Liu Junping, a driver who was allowed to leave home so he could ferry around state TV crews for Mr Xi's visit this week, said his family were still stuck at home.

"My wife and 17-year-old son haven't left their apartment for weeks," he told the ABC.

"Our neighbourhood compound is under lockdown."

Neighbourhood committees are buying and delivering groceries for residents, although some people have become desperate as they run low on medicine.

Could Australia and other countries adopt similar measures?

The World Health Organisation described China's measures to contain coronavirus as 'aggressive', but said they'd prevented hundreds of thousands of infections. ( AP: Andy Wong )

Despite these costs, many are now posing the question about whether Chinese-style measures could work as effectively elsewhere.

Already we have seen Italy, the United States and Australia step up measures this week. Other countries might look at what else they need to do soon.

"While it looks draconian, it's actually the best thing for the wider population to contain people in centres away from family," UNSW epidemiologist Mary-Louise McLaws said.

"We did learn in Australia, during the avian flu of 2015, people who were meant to be in isolation picked up children from school or went shopping.

"It's hard for individuals to have the greater good in their minds, so I completely understand why China chose that approach."

But Professor McLaws believes Australia's small population and sea borders provide an advantage other countries will likely be envious of.

"I'm an epidemiologist, so my response is an epidemiological one: go in early and go in hard," she said.

"And right now is the opportunity to ensure we close our borders. We need to do this until the northern hemisphere has a drop in numbers, and they call the pandemic off.

"If we don't do that, we could be like Italy."