The government of Yunnan, China, announced that the border city of Ruili, opposite Muse, will soon re-open after weeks of strict lockdown. After tens of thousands of tests, no one else has tested positive for the disease, and restrictions will soon be partially lifted.

The “wartime” lockdown, as Chinese state media described it, came after two Myanmar citizens tested positive for the disease earlier this month. As local health workers scrambled to test around 200,000 people, all Myanmar migrants were subject to testing, and authorities deported any illegal migrants they found. Residents were confined to their homes save for certain essential errands, and (other than the deportations) almost no one was allowed to enter or leave the city. As a result, land trade through Muse—Myanmar’s main trade portal with China—slowed to a trickle, with trucks forced to use older and lesser-used roads that bypassed Ruili.

“Apart from the two imported cases, no local cases nor local transmission of the virus were found,” Reuters quoted the Yunnan government as saying.
The home quarantine order will soon be lifted, but businesses such as bars and cinemas will remain closed. Furthermore, official trade through the city has resumed, the Myanmar Times reported, although Myanmar drivers must swap vehicles with Chinese drivers at the border.