While Beijing’s sledgehammer approach — seen by many as an extreme experiment unprecedented in size and scope — worked to quickly lower the number of infections, the price in human trauma and economic loss was severe.

The virus has killed 3,245 people in China so far, making up over a third of the global toll. Eight people died on Wednesday, all in Hubei, the province at the center of the outbreak that began late last year in its capital city, Wuhan, where officials first said they had detected cases of a mysterious pneumonia on Dec. 31.

Hubei has borne the brunt of the epidemic: More than 50 million people there were placed under a tight lockdown from late January, and the province’s case fatality rate, at 4.6 percent, has been several times higher than the rest of the country.

[Analysis: The world feared China over coronavirus. Now the tables have turned.]

China is not out of danger from a revived contagion and instability. A vast swath of the country’s populace has been embittered by how the ruling Communist Party has handled the scourge. Questions have been raised about the accuracy of China’s statistics. And even if zero local infections has been achieved, that does not mean zero new cases.

Officials said Thursday that 34 new cases had been confirmed among people who had arrived from elsewhere, pointing to how difficult it will likely be for China — or any country — to keep the virus completely out. Within China, many provinces and cities have essentially shut themselves off to travelers from elsewhere, raising the question of whether the virus will re-emerge once such barriers are lifted and people begin crisscrossing the country again.