Search

How to maintain the balanced stability and resilient development of rural systems is an important issue that needs urgent attention in the field of sustainable rural development at present. In this paper, the entropy method, spatial autocorrelation model, and Geodetector were used to explore the rural resilience level, spatial distribution characteristics, and driving factors of 31 cities in the urban agglomerations in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River (UAMRYR), and to put forward corresponding policy suggestions. The results are as follows: (1) From 2005 to 2020, rural resilience in the UAMRYR showed an upward trend with an average annual growth rate of 8.26%. The ranking of the three major urban agglomerations is Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan urban agglomerations > Wuhan urban agglomerations > Poyang Lake urban agglomerations. (2) During the study period, the spatial distribution of rural resilience gradually developed from a negative correlation to a strong positive correlation and generally showed the characteristics of high in the west and low in the east. (3) The urbanization rate, the size and structure of the economy, the difference in consumption and income between urban and rural areas, the local fiscal revenue, and the number of village committees are the key factors affecting the level of rural resilience. On this basis, we proposed policy recommendations to improve the economic, social, and ecological resilience of rural areas in the UAMRYR. The findings of this paper are expected to provide insights into the policy formulation of China's rural revitalization strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the reactions of domestic helpers to the Wuhan (Hubei Province) lockdown that began on January 23, 2020. We use a novel dataset containing the information of over 40,000 Chinese domestic helpers registered on a leading professional website from November 2019 to June 2020. The results indicate a declining pattern of short-term labor supply of domestic helpers across 11 major Chinese cities, which shows an increase in the expected monthly wage of domestic helpers in these cities. More importantly, using a difference-in-difference (DID) model, this paper provides some evidence on the existence of labor market discrimination against domestic helpers born in Hubei Province due to employers' fear of infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to evaluate the impact of massive infectious and contagious diseases and its final impact on the economic performance anywhere and anytime. We are considering to evaluate the case of Wuhan, China. We are taking in consideration the case of COVID-19 to be evaluated under a domestic, national, and international level impact. In this paper, we also propose a new simulator to evaluate the impact of massive infections and contagious diseases on the economic performance subsequently. This simulator is entitled "The Impact of Pandemics on the Economic Performance Simulator (IPEP-Simulator)" Hence, this simulator tries to show a macro and micro analysis with different possible scenarios simultaneously. Finally, the IPEP-Simulator was applied to the case of Wuhan-China respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world is urgently looking for ways to flatten the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) curve, and many governments have resorted to implementing strict lockdowns, as researchers show the effectiveness of China's approaches in containing the virus. However, this paper argues that the draconian lockdowns instituted in Wuhan, Hubei, China, may have actually contributed to intensifying patient surges and incapacitating local health systems. Medical aids were rushed to Hubei and new hospitals were rapidly built, however, the healthcare system was still unable to match the staggering increase of patients in the early stages of the lockdowns. The paper proposes using patient evacuation to enhance sustainable COVID-19 mitigation during lockdowns. It demonstrates that patients in Hubei could have been transported to other Chinese provinces where hospitals were under-utilized. This could have theoretically saved thousands of lives by reducing inequities between Hubei and the rest of China in healthcare capacity for treating COVID-19 patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper analyzes Fang Fang's 2020 Wuhan Diary‐Dispatches from a Quarantined City, to show how the author communicates the coronavirus crisis in Wuhan in a global information ecosystem. The success of the diary showcases how the actual health emergency has been transformed into a communication issue. Design/methodology/approach: This study is exploratory and qualitative in nature. The authors conducted a thematic analysis (TA) of Wuhan Diary, in which we decided to focus on the aspects of sousveillance and solidarity. For the purposes of our paper, we used the English translation of the text by Dr. Michael Berry. Findings: The authors focus on two major themes in their exploration of the corona crisis as a global communication issue: sousveillance and solidarity. The authors argue that the diary's ways of seeing perform a version of "sousveillance" or "undersight" in juxtaposition to surveillance or "oversight" (Mann, 2017). Fang Fang calls for solidarity as an effective measure for individuals, communities and societies to contain the pandemic and a potential misinfodemic. Originality/value: Since Wuhan was the early epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, Wuhan Diary presents an unprecedented narrative account of life under quarantine that could function as a litmus test for other cities and countries. Fang Fang's diary provides a countermeasure to official accounts of the pandemic in Wuhan, which has resonated both with people in China and abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The acceleration of urbanization has significantly impacted the changing regional thermal environment, leading to a series of ecological and environment-related problems. A scientific evaluation of the urban thermal security pattern (TSPurban) strongly benefits the planning and layout of sustainable development and the construction of comfortable human settlements. To analyze the characteristics of the TSPurban under cross-regional differences and provide targeted solutions to mitigate the urban heat island effect in later stages, the logical system research framework of the TSPurban based on the "construction–evaluation–optimization" model was explored using reverse thinking. This study selected the Wuhan metropolitan area in China as the research object. First, a morphological spatial pattern analysis (MSPA) model was used to extract the top 30 core heat island patches, and Conefor 2.6 software was used for connection analysis to evaluate their importance. Second, based on the characteristics of various land cover types, the friction (cost) map of surface urban heat island (SUHI) diffusion was simulated. The spatial attributes of the heat island resistance surface were examined using a standard deviation ellipse and hot spot analysis. Finally, this paper used circuit theory to find 56 low-cost heat island links (corridors) and circuit scape software to find widely distributed vital nodes. The optimization of the TSPurban network was then investigated using a reverse thinking process. Heat island patches, corridors, and vital nodes are among the crucial components of the TSPurban. By obstructing corridor links and disturbing important nodes, it is possible to appropriately and proficiently reduce the TSPurban network's connection efficiency and stability, which will have a positive influence on regional climate mitigation and the heat island effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world's first epicentre of Covid-19 that contained the virus early and recovered quickly, Wuhan, the capital city of China's Hubei province, offers a rare case for examining the effective but unbalanced role of the Chinese state in recovering a post-Covid city against a continued zero-Covid policy. Due to institutional inertia in policy-making, Wuhan has experienced a two-track recovery of (i) rapid GDP growth from infrastructure investment fuelled by government stimuli and large state-owned enterprises, and (ii) a weak recovery for small private businesses and grassroots consumption. Combining analyses of city-level data and survey/interview information, this paper examines the unbalanced role of the Chinese state in producing Wuhan's uneven two-track economic recovery and its implications for recalibrating the roles of the central versus local governments and empowering the latter to rebalance from production to consumption and to improve livelihood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, urbanization has been a major topic of discussion among academics and professionals when investigating issues such as social segregation, spatial inequality, and urban sustainability. However, little attention has been given to the relationship between social characteristics and the ever-changing development of urban spaces. This paper seeks to investigate progressive changes in the social stratification structure in Wuhan's urban development zone (UDZ) while focusing on their associated spatial transformations, based on census data of Wuhan in 1990, 2000, and 2010. To obtain this objective, the study will answer two key questions: (1) What are the characteristics of urban social spatial evolutions of Wuhan the second-tier city in China? (2) What are the mechanisms of social spatial evolution? And (3) what role does the social spatial evolution play in urban social planning and management? We used varimax rotated principal component analysis (PCA) to extract social dimensions along with ArcMap to enhance spatial analysis while visualizing the distribution of social factor scores. The results show that since 1990, the local population (particularly the aging population) has reflected a hollowing trend. Industrial relocation and population mobility have become the main social dimensions in the 1990s and 2000s respectively. The characteristics of socio-spatial transformations are from concentric rings as well as combinations of concentric rings, axial aggregations, and multiple clusters. These transformations are formed by the push–pull force of the large area and the centripetal and centrifugal forces inside the city. We have concluded that top-down systems dominate socio-spatial transformations in the early stages, while public participatory management plays a more important role in the later stages, which will become inclusive governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China, turned into a pandemic in record time. Communication of disease presentation and mechanism of spread remain keys to getting ahead of the virus and limiting its spread beyond the capacity of management. Owing to huge academic focus and pandemic concern around the globe, this bibliometric analysis investigated research productivity related to coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic using the Web of Science database. The relevant data were harvested, and search query was further refined by publication years (2020 OR 2019) and document types (article, book chapter, and proceedings paper). Finally, 6694 records were imported and downloaded in Plaintext and BibTeX formats on August 1, 2020. The data analysis was performed using MS Excel, VOS viewer, and Biblioshiny software. Of the 6694 publications that appeared in that period, the USA and Chinese research institutions topped the numbers. At the same time, the Journal of Medical Virology and CUREUS (Cureus Journal of Medical Science), remained favorite journals for publications. The pattern of multi-author publications has outstripped that of single-authors. Apart from COVID-19 and the novel coronavirus, the important keywords mentioned included pandemic, pneumonia, epidemiology, public health, outbreak, epidemic, China, infection, and treatment. The analysis shows a strong local research response from China, with large teams reporting on the disease outbreak. Subsequent studies will document a global response as the virus spreads worldwide. The initial research related to the current coronavirus outbreak was reported from within China. The data and patterns were supposed to alter as the virus spread globally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Covid-19 pandemic started in Wuhan in December 2019 and then spread to the rest of China and the world. This paper examines the relationship between inter-provincial migration and the diffusion of covid-19 outbreak in Mainland China from 26 January to 6 March 2020. Statistical analysis shows that the migrants who moved into Hubei in 2010–2015 are a good indicator of the population flow from Hubei to other provinces that caused the spread of covid-19 in early 2020. Many migrants traveled back to hometown before the traffic ban of Wuhan city for the spring holiday. Thus, the migration flow from a province to Hubei in the period 2010–2015 had the highest correlation coefficient with the number of covid-19 cases in four selected dates. The population flow based on the big data from the Baidu map on 20 January 2020 was also highly correlated with the number of cases, but not as good as the above migration data. The finding demonstrates the role of established migrant networks in the spread of covid-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that affect the retail rent of shopping centres in Wuhan, an important city in central China. Design/methodology/approach – The study uses a data set of 68 shopping centres in urban Wuhan. A regression model is constructed to estimate the impact on retail rent of a composite range of variables that would capture the physical characteristics, spatial characteristics, potential attractiveness of shopping centres and market condition. Findings – The empirical findings suggest the ceiling height, closeness to metro line station, being situated in commercial central area, vacancy rate and income have significant impact on rental level. Unexpected, the retail mix has a significant negative impact on rent. The impact of the more determining factors found in Western research – size, age, parking space and anchor tenant – is not supported in the Wuhan study. Practical implications – While 68 shopping centres are included in the test, the sample size is relatively small. The comparatively short history of retail market in Wuhan would not allow to test the rent adjustment process. Originality/value – This is the first paper to investigate retail rent determinants in a second-tier city in China. The results of the study give designers, developers and investors critical insights into the determinants of retail rent in an emerging market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A pandemic such as COVID-19, like any other, is characterised beyond demographic range because it is a worldwide phenomenon. This means that people of any creed are vulnerable to coronavirus, and that each of us needs to take our roles seriously in the fight against the virus. More to this, this means that the management of the virus has complexity, as shown by recent scientific advances with the discovery of the new variant. This implies that with the testing of new vaccines, with categories approved by the World Health Organisation, one needs to be mindful of their interaction with susceptible patients, and that in order to succumb to this pandemic, we must be aware of hygienic practices, and their importance henceforth. This paper is a news report on the 2019 coronavirus pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Area Development & Policy is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

China's urban explosion has resulted in a substantial loss of agricultural production on the fringes of many cities. Farmland is not only converted into urban uses but also taken out of production because it has lost its value for those who can farm it. This farmland abandonment process has received little research attention. This paper studies the abandonment of farmland around the rapidly urbanizing city of Wuhan and aims to identify its important determinants based on an extensive field survey among local farmers. Around 800 semi-structured field interviews were conducted to capture the parcel and location characteristics, farming practices, and household characteristics. Important parcel-related drivers of land abandonment are lack of family members to work the land and fragmentation of parcels. Spatial characteristics are less important, except for the presence of certain soil types that favour cultivation and designation under the farmland protection policy. The planted crop species and the option to transfer land to other farmers are important farming practices to continue cultivation. Moreover, farmers with a higher farming income and lower education levels are less likely to abandon their farmland. We suggest that land use policies can help in preventing further farmland abandonment by steering urban development away from the most suitable soils for farming and concentrating development to limit the fragmentation of parcels. Strengthening the land market and removing the remaining barriers for farmers to transfer land to colleagues can further help to keep farmland in production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), first reported in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, has progressed to a pandemic associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. Little is known about the healthcare workers who died fighting the disease in China. This paper analyzed the data of 78 Chinese healthcare workers who died in the fight against COVID-19 between 23 January and 2 June, 2020, and revealed the following characteristics. First, compared to the number of deaths directly attributable to COVID-19, more healthcare workers died from pre-existing disease attack induced by excessive fatigue or died from accidents. Second, the median age of the healthcare workers who died directly from COVID-19 was younger than that of the Wuhan non- healthcare workers who died of COVID 19. Third, although more women than men were involved in fighting the pandemic, more men died. Fourth, more healthcare workers died in Hubei than in other provinces. Fifth, most of the healthcare workers who died directly from COVID-19 were non-professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of deindustrialisation remains dominated by studies of the OECD countries. The process has only recently been studied in newly industrialised countries and regions yet in a geographically constrained manner, dominated by macro-level, sectorial-based analytical frameworks. China so far has not featured highly in this emerging literature as its deindustrialisation is a more recent phenomenon overshadowed by ongoing industrialisation. This article contributes to an understanding of deindustrialisation in a microscopic empirical analysis of a China case. The microscopic approach is particularly relevant in China where state-owned, self-contained enterprises, or 'danweis', used to shape the industrial and social lives of urban Chinese, but it is also relevant to understanding processes of deindustrialisation elsewhere where these involve iconic, single industry or company communities. Adopting a case-study ethnographic approach, this study examines the transformation experienced by the iconic Wuhan Iron and Steel Company (WISCO) in Wuhan, Central China, and reveals variations in the pace of change in industrialisation and the 'half-life' of deindustrialisation as it is moderated by the institutionalisation and social life of danweis in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since China entered the 21st century, a phenomenon of return migrants moving back from urban to rural areas has been noted, especially in central regions such as Hubei Province. Despite its significance, this phenomenon remains inadequately understood. Employing ethnographic research methods, we conducted multiple rounds of fieldwork in Guangzhou, Wuhan, and three of Wuhan's neighbouring county-level cities—Hanchuan, Xiantao, and Tianmen—where rising garment industrial enclaves and return migration have been observed. Our findings reveal that the pro-growth policies of megacities like Wuhan and Guangzhou, aimed at industrial transformation while eliminating 'low-end' manufacturing, have forced migrants to leave large cities. Among these individuals, return-migrant entrepreneurs (RMEs), comprising entrepreneurs and family workshop owners, have had a profound impact on advancing county urbanisation in Hubei Province. Specifically, we identified three features for return-migrant urbanisation. First, entrepreneurs took their return as an opportunity to expand and promote their businesses, thereby fostering industrialisation in Hanchuan. Second, local state activities in Xiantao, encompassing the construction of highways, logistics systems, and other facilities, coupled with institutionalised arrangements, triggered return migration and township urbanisation. Third, households and individuals with entrepreneurship dominated the development of the informal workshop industry in Tianmen. Overall, our study contributes to the nuanced understanding of new types of urbanisation in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Better understanding of social media uses in crisis situations can help improve disaster management by policy-makers, organizations, businesses, and members of the public. It can also build theoretical understanding of how social life and citizenship incorporate social media usage. This study tracks the evolution of public sentiment in Wuhan, China, during the first 12 weeks after the identification of COVID-19 on the Chinese microblogging platform Sina Weibo. Data consist of 133,079 original Sina Weibo posts dealing with the novel coronavirus. The relative prevalence of eight different emotion groups is traced longitudinally using the ROST Content Mining System and the Emotion Vocabulary of Dalian University of Technology. The study finds a progression from confusion/fear, to disappointment/frustration, to depression/anxiety, then finally to happiness/gratitude. It argues that this progression indexes the changing affective energies of digital medical citizenship, which in turn indicates the context for intervention in future crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the association between sense of community and neighbourhood governance. Based on residents' evaluation of the service efficacies of the government, market and resident agencies, three types of neighbourhood governance are identified: tripartite balance governance, weak-market governance and government-dominated governance. The tripartite balance governance does not necessarily lead to a higher sense of community than the government-dominated governance, but the latter significantly promotes a higher sense of community than the weak-market governance. The diversity of agencies is not necessarily conducive to sense of community, whilst those agencies' horizontal cooperation based on even power relations promotes sense of community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines China's emotional governance by analysing the emotional politics behind the wide circulation of the Fang Fang diaries during the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak. By highlighting the flexible and creative reorientation of online emotions in the Chinese state's governance approach, the article investigates how the diaries' reverberation of negative feelings – such as grief and indignation – engendered contentious affective publics and amounted to a moment of dissent. The article also explores how the state used multi-layered strategies to demobilise and reorient public sentiment and opinion into regime-supportive nationalism. In doing so, the article offers a more nuanced understanding of state–society relations, online expression and authoritarian resilience in China than interpretations that emphasise suppression and censorship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is one of the first to present causal evidence of the morbidity costs of fine particulates (PM2.5) for all age cohorts in a developing country, using individual-level health spending data from a basic medical insurance program in Wuhan, China. Our instrumental variable (IV) approach uses thermal inversion to address potential endogeneity in PM2.5 concentrations and shows that PM2.5 imposes a significant impact on healthcare expenditures. The two-stage least squares (2SLS) estimates suggest that a 10 μg/m3 (micrograms per cubic meter) reduction in monthly average PM2.5 leads to a 2.36% decrease in the value of health spending and a 0.79% decline in the number of transactions at pharmacies and healthcare facilities. Also, this effect, largely driven by spending at pharmacies, is more salient for males and children, as well as middle-aged and older adults. Moreover, our estimates may provide a lower bound on individuals' willingness to pay, amounting to CNY 43.87 (or USD 7.09) per capita per year for a 10 μg/m3 reduction in PM2.5. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing of evidence suggests that rapid urbanization modifies precipitation and increases atmospheric instability in urban areas mainly due to urban heat island (UHI)-induced thermal effects and urban building-induced dynamic effects. However, few studies focus on the impact of urbanization on the diurnal variations in urban rainfall in terms of initiating time, frequency, amount, and intensity. Here, six years of hourly data from a relatively dense meteorological observation network in the Wuhan area in central China are used to quantify the issue of urbanization-induced diurnal variations in hourly rainfall and short-duration rainfall (SDR) events by comparing urban and surrounding rural stations during the summer dry period (13 July to 4 August), corresponding to hot weather with little rainfall and high evaporation. The results indicate that: (i) A higher frequency of hourly rainfall appears during night-time and afternoon over urban areas as compared to rural areas. The urban rainfall is more concentrated during the night-time; (ii) More and stronger urban SDR events are triggered during the night-time over urban areas, especially in terms of amount and intensity of rainfall events. A greater diurnal urban–rural difference in SDR events is detected than that in hourly mean rainfall; (iii) There is an enhancement in the night-time and afternoon urban SDR events when UHI intensity increases before they are initiated, and this is detectable in the frequency, amount, and intensity of SDR events. It is also found that the UHI-induced thermal effects are the main reason for the stronger nocturnal SDR events in Wuhan during the summer dry period, which is caused by increases in the convection current and water vapor flux convergence in the urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The characteristics of information flow, as represented by the Baidu index, reflect the pattern of tourism flows between different cities. This paper is based on the Baidu index and applies the seasonal concentration index and social network analysis (SNA) methods to study the spatial structure characteristics of tourism flows in China. The results reveal that: (1) both the search volume of the Baidu index in different cities and the online attention to different scenic areas exhibit obvious spatial heterogeneity and seasonal differences; (2) regions with strong tourism flow connections mainly occur in the areas between metropolises or among the inner cities of urban agglomerations, which are largely distributed on the southeast side of the Heihe–Tengchong Line; (3) the development of the whole tourism flow network in China is low, with an unbalanced development between tourism supply and demand, indicating that tourism resources are concentrated in a few cities and that most of the information interaction among cities occurs in core areas, while a weak interaction is observed in peripheral areas; (4) cities like Beijing and Wuhan attain obvious advantages in regard to their tourism resources, whereas other cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, exhibit a high demand for tourism. Moreover, tourism information flow networks are concentrated in several cities with an important role in the Chinese urban system, such as Beijing, Wuhan, and Chengdu, because they contain abundant tourism resources, well-developed transportation systems and advanced economic and societal development levels. (5) Cities such as Beijing, Lhasa, Wuhan, and Zhengzhou possess numerous advantages due to structural holes, and they thus occur at an advantageous position in the tourism flow network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Identifying and monitoring urban land is essential for sprawl management. The use of nighttime lights (NTL) data has been reported as a suitable approach for identifying urban land across large regions, but the accuracy of urban land classification using these data is seldom discussed, particularly in small- and mid-sized cities. This paper provides a hierarchical framework for analyzing the accuracy of several DMSP/OLS- and NPP VIIRS-based NTL metrics at three nested levels (the overall Wuhan metropolis [WHM], nine cities comprising WHM, and 36 counties comprising the nine cities) using threshold approaches. Comparative analyses show mixed results, ranging [59.72%, 99.79%] and [0%, 83.96%] for map- and class-level accuracies, respectively, at the three nested levels. Moreover, NPP VIIRS is generally superior to DMSP/OLS for classifying urban land across the entire WHM and most cities/counties. Findings suggest map-level accuracy (over 95%) may be overinflated for certain NTL-based metrics, as the metrics produced relatively low class-level accuracies, around 60%. Pass time, spatial resolution of the data product, and certain situations (toll and railway stations, construction sites, less developed urban areas, and reflective surfaces near urban areas) are demonstrated as notable factors impacting NTL-based urban land identification. The findings from this study contribute to a better understanding of the appropriateness of using these metrics for urban land identification in different cities/scenarios and the development of more formalized frameworks for assessing applications in large-scale regions. Highlights • A framework is provided to analyze NTL metric accuracies for urban identification. • Low class-level and overinflated map-level accuracies are common for NTL metrics. • Metric efficiency varies at global, regional, local levels in an urban hierarchy. • Complex situations and features of NTL data are confusing urban land extracting. • Consistently misclassified land uses motivate need for additional NTL research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban sprawl in China presents unique characteristics that differ from those commonly studied in Western contexts, an aspect not fully explored in previous studies. Therefore, taking Wuhan, Hubei as an example and integrating population data, remote sensing data, and POI data, this research offers a perspective on sprawl development in urban China. By incorporating population, urban land use, and urban amenities, this study measures their dynamics to classify urban spaces and employs spatial regression models to identify the characteristics of sprawl development with spatial effects controlled. It further applies geographically weighted regression to examine the underlying spatial heterogeneity. The findings indicate that population growth and urban land expansion do not align perfectly, and further exploration identifies the various trends of sprawl development in urban core and periphery areas. On the other hand, some suburban areas show compact development trends, but the growth of local amenities may be limited due to the historical sprawl development legacies. Regression results reveal specific characteristics of this sprawl development. Key findings include the following: (1) shaped by the triple process of sprawl development of urban renewal, suburbanization, and rural revitalization, Wuhan shows a significant core-periphery structure with the trend of polycentricity; (2) overcrowding in central urban districts is the primary driver of sprawl development; (3) most traditional suburbs in Wuhan have emerged as a consequence of rapid urbanization with a legacy of sprawl development; (4) spatial heterogeneity across urban spaces highlights the necessity for locally tailored approaches to regulating sprawl development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In December 2019, the SARS-CoV-2 virus was first detected in Wuhan, China. Soon after, China became the first country in the world to enforce strict lockdown protocols in an effort to mitigate the spread of the disease. This study examines the perceptions of pandemic rules enforcement during the first COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 among 600 Chinese police officers. The analyses reveal that police departments' prompt and adequate adjustment to the pandemic, police officers' procedural justice in interacting with citizens, and police perceptions of police trustworthiness among the citizens all had direct and indirect effects on public compliance to lockdown enforcement during the pandemic. These findings affirm the role of police procedural justice in public compliance to law enforcement in China and stress the importance of organizational adjustment and public trust during an emergency situation such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Implications to pandemic-related policymaking and enforcement are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: While the association between physical activity (PA) and depression has been established, there is limited research on the effect of PA on the risk of depression among Chinese individuals. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between PA and depression among Chinese individuals. Methods: We used a stratified random sampling approach to recruit participants from five urban districts in Wuhan, China. A total of 5,583 permanent residents aged 18 years or older completed questionnaires, which included the International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form (IPAQ-SF) to measure PA, and the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) to evaluate depressive symptoms. To control for potential confounders, multiple logistic regression was employed to assess the association of PA with depression. Results: The depression group had significantly lower weekly PA levels, measured in metabolic equivalent of task-minutes per week (MET-min/w), compared to the non-depression group [1,770 (693-4,200) MET-min/w vs. 2,772 (1,324-4,893) MET-min/w, p < 0.001]. In the fully adjusted model, the moderate and high PA level groups had lower odds ratios (ORs) for depressive symptoms compared to the low PA level group [OR (95% confidence interval (CI)) = 0.670 (0.523-0.858), 0.618 (0.484-0.790), respectively]. Among males, moderate and high levels of PA were associated with lower risk of depression compared to low PA levels [OR (95% CI) = 0.417 (0.268-0.649), 0.381 (0.244-0.593), respectively]. However, this association was not observed in females [OR (95% CI) = 0.827 (0.610-1.121), 0.782 (0.579-1.056), respectively]. The study found a significant interaction between PA levels and gender in relation to depression (P for interaction = 0.019). Conclusion: The findings suggest a negative association between PA and risk of depressive symptoms, indicating that moderate to high levels of PA may serve as a protective factor against depressive symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Vitamin E is an essential nutrient in human body famous for its antioxidant and non-antioxidant functions. However, little is known about vitamin E deficiency status in urban adults of Wuhan from central China. Our aim is to describe the distribution of both circulating and lipid-adjusted serum vitamin E concentration in urban adults of Wuhan. Methods: We hypothesized that the prevalence rate of vitamin E deficiency would be low in Wuhan in consideration of the Chinese food composition. A cross-sectional study with 846 adults was performed in a single-center. Concentrations of vitamin E were measured by liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS). Results: The median (interquartile range, IQR) of serum vitamin E concentration was 27.40 (22.89–33.20) μmol/L while that of serum vitamin E concentration adjusted by total cholesterol or the sum of cholesterol (TC) and triglyceride (TG) (the sum of cholesterol and triglyceride, TLs) were 6.20 (5.30–7.48) and 4.86 (4.10–5.65) mmol/mol, respectively. No significant difference of the circulating and TC-adjusted vitamin E concentration was found between male and female except for vitamin E/TLs. However, concentrations of vitamin E increased significantly (r = 0.137, P < 0.001) with age, but lipid-adjusted concentrations of vitamin E did not. On analysis of risk factors, the subjects characterized by hypercholesterolemia are more likely to exhibit higher circulating but lower lipid-adjusted vitamin E level due to adequacy of the serum carriers for delivery of vitamin E. Only 0.47% of the population were below 12 μmol/L of vitamin E defined as functional deficiency. Conclusion: The prevalence rate of vitamin E deficiency in urban adults of Wuhan is low, which is important and useful to clinicians for clinical decision-making in public health practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of transit deserts stems from the concept of food deserts. There is substantial research on transit deserts in developed countries. However, there is no known research that has studied this subject in Chinese cities. Using open-source data, this paper identified transit desert areas in four major Chinese cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Chengdu). The results show that: (1) In these four cities, the transit desert areas are mainly concentrated in city centers and hardly occur in any suburban areas, which is very different from the cases in the US. (2) Shanghai has the largest transit-dependent population living in transit deserts, followed by Beijing, Chengdu, and Wuhan. Chengdu has the smallest transit desert areas, followed by Shanghai, Wuhan, and Beijing. (3) An oversized transit-dependent population and incomplete transit systems in these cities might contribute to the transit deserts' occurrences. (4) Different distribution of population density, traveling preference, and transportation investment policy in Chinese and American cities might contribute to the different findings. By examining transit desert problems in major Chinese cities, this study brought people's attention to the gap between transit demand and supply in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the spatial relationship between walkability and air pollution exposure via a spatial vertical equity lens, and discusses the possible bias of healthy spaces with a special focus on age groups and housing prices. The urban centre of Wuhan, China, a rapidly urbanising area, is taken as the study area. The findings obtained are: (i) spatial inequities of the urban-rural gradient are evident in terms of walkability and air pollution exposure, and the combinations of the two measurements divide the study area into high walkability-low pollution exposure spaces ('sweet spot' locations), low walkability-high pollution exposure spaces ('sour spot' locations), high walkability-high pollution exposure spaces ('risky spot' locations) and low walkability-low pollution exposure spaces; (ii) both minors and seniors were inequitably treated in healthy space allocation, but minors are at a more significant disadvantage than seniors; and (iii) the communities with low housing prices exhibit low walkability and high air pollution exposure, suggesting that healthy spaces are more likely observed in economically advantaged communities. The study proposes a spatial lens to investigate the importance of embedding the notion of vertical equity in the built environment, and thus provides a conceptual framework to support sustainable urban planning and public health. • Spatial lens is adopted to investigate the equity embedded in the built environment. • Measurements of walkability and air pollution exposure have both been improved. • Minors, compared to seniors, are at a greater disadvantage in the built environment. • Economically vulnerable groups are being squeezed out of healthy spaces. • The research framework supports policies towards a more equitable environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Legacy media worldwide face challenges from both digital platforms and new media rivalries. China offers alternative views and modes of journalistic practices in response to the worldwide "professionalism" crisis. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has provided legacy media with an opportunity to reassert journalistic professionalism at a critical moment. Taking the market-oriented media outlet Caixin as a case, this study explores how Chinese journalists articulate their professional roles, values and ideals in the coverage of COVID-19. Through discourse analysis, we find that Caixin has defended its authority and legitimacy as quality journalism by incorporating "self-reflexivity" and "transparency" in their professional practices in the digital age. In response to the global journalism crisis, while Chinese state media have adopted the Marxist view, positivity and "conditioned autonomy" to counter the Western "professionalism", market-oriented media represented by Caixin have turned inward to "reflexivity" and "transparency" as a compromising strategy in their professional conventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on perceptions of audiencing – the active roles of witnessing and validating involving physical expressivity – raised by a selection of foreign musicians in relation to their experiences of performing rock and related genres in China. It highlights the connections between embodied dimensions of face-to-face musical experiences and the lenses of national difference and sameness bound up in debates over the colonial implications of "intercultural" musical encounters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Primary care represents an ideal setting for screening for and managing suicidal older adults but the clinical epidemiology of suicidal ideation in Chinese older primary care patients remains unclear. This study investigated the prevalence and correlates of suicidal ideation in older Chinese adults receiving primary care. Methods: This multicenter cross-sectional survey included a total of 769 older adults (≥65 years) from seven urban and six rural primary care clinics in Wuhan, China. The presence of depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation was assessed with the Geriatric Depression Scale and a single-item question "In the past 12 months, did you think about ending your life?," respectively. Results: The 12-month prevalence of suicidal ideation in older primary care patients was 16.6%. Significant correlates of suicidal ideation were poor economic status (vs. good, OR = 2.80, P = 0.008), heart disease (OR = 2.48, P = 0.005), chronic gastric ulcer (OR = 3.55, P = 0.012), arthritis (OR = 2.10, P = 0.042), and depressive symptoms (OR = 11.29, P < 0.001). Conclusions: Suicidal ideation is common among older adults attending Chinese primary care clinics. It is necessary to integrate psychological crisis intervention into primary care to prevent late-life suicide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan in January 2020, governments around the world evacuated their citizens from China. Soon, problems arose in relation to the evacuation of families made up of white Western migrants and Chinese citizens, as their mixed citizenship status prevented them from being evacuated as a family. By analyzing news reports, policy documents, and social media discussions about these families' predicaments, this article investigates the reasons why they faced being separated in this time of crisis. Drawing on the concept of white mobility capital, it argues that the Covid-19 era brings to our attention the weak foundation of long-assumed mobility privileges among white migrants in China and sheds light on the precarious status of increasing numbers of mixed-status families in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first reported on December 2019 in Wuhan, it fast spread to the rest of China, which has turned into a global public health problem later and generated global stock markets to violently shake. We inspect the causal relationships between economic development (ED) and environmental quality (EQ) during the period from January 2019 to May 2020 with the structural break for China and investigate the causal linkages between ED and EQ in subgroup of before and after the outbreak of COVID-19 with a semi-parametric model. The empirical tests show that smoothing structural transforms matter for the linkages of causality between ED and EQ, especially after COVID-19 infection. While the Toda–Yamamoto causality analysis supports unidirectional causality between ED and EQ before the outbreak of COVID-19, under structural shifts by the causality supplies of bidirectional casual linkages after the outbreak of COVID-19. Our results further clarified the proof that the economic activity gives rise to the environmental pollution and energy utilization mainly via the shock of COVID-19 in China. The emphasis on nonlinear causality between economic development and environmental quality may be an opportunity for China's economic recovery under considering the factor of COVID-19 infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are a wide variety of explanations for reasons why crime clusters at particular locations. They reflect the range of factors that influence where crime incidents occur. In this article, we focus on the influence of the space syntax and in particular the permeability of the street network on the location of residential burglaries in Wuhan, China. We first review existing research to summarize the different approaches being used to analyze the impacts of the configuration of street networks on crime and the findings about that have so far emerged. Then we analyze residential burglaries at the street segment level with considerable variation in street network configuration and socioeconomic factors. In the conclusion of the paper we discuss the implications of the statistical output. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Bullying victimization has been associated with depressive symptoms in Chinese university students. This study examined the moderating effect of possible avoidant personality disorder (APD) on association between bullying victimization and depressive symptoms in university freshmen. Methods: A total of 1,453 freshmen were recruited from a comprehensive university in Wuhan, China, and administered a self-report questionnaire. The APD subscale of Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire–Version 4 and Beck Depression Inventory were used to measure the presence of possible APD and depressive symptoms, respectively. The moderating effect of possible APD was examined by testing the statistical significance of the interaction between victimization and possible APD in multiple logistic regression analysis. Results: The prevalence of depressive symptoms was 24.8%. In multiple logistic regression analysis, the interaction between bullying victimization and possible APD was significantly associated with depressive symptoms (OR: 1.80, P = 0.029). Subsequent subgroup analyses according to the status of possible APD showed that, the victimization-depression association was stronger among freshmen with possible APD (OR: 3.23, P < 0.001) than those without possible APD (OR: 1.82, P = 0.001). Conclusion: In Chinese university freshmen, bullying victimization is significantly associated with depressive symptoms, and possible APD magnifies the victimization-depression association. Bullied freshmen, particularly freshmen with possible APD, could be considered as the target group of campus-based depression intervention programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: After the lockdown of Wuhan on January 23, 2020, the government used community-based pandemic prevention and control as the core strategy to fight the pandemic, and explored a set of standardized community pandemic prevention measures that were uniformly implemented throughout the city. One month later, the city announced its first lists of "high-risk" communities and COVID-19-free communities. Under the standardized measures of pandemic prevention and mitigation, why some communities showed a high degree of resilience and effectively avoided escalation, while the situation spun out of control in other communities? This study investigated: 1) key factors that affect the effective response of urban communities to the pandemic, and 2) types of COVID-19 susceptible communities.Methods: This study employs the crisp-set qualitative comparative analysis method to explore the influencing variables and possible causal condition combination paths that affect community resilience during the pandemic outbreak. Relying on extreme-case approach, 26 high-risk communities and 14 COVID-19 free communities were selected as empirical research subjects from the lists announced by Wuhan government. The community resilience assessment framework that evaluates the communities' capacity on pandemic prevention and mitigation covers four dimensions, namely spatial resilience, capital resilience, social resilience, and governance resilience, each dimension is measured by one to three variables.Results: The results of measuring the necessity of 7 single-condition variables found that the consistency index of "whether the physical structure of the community is favorable to virus transmission" reached 0.9, which constitutes a necessary condition for COVID-19 susceptible communities. By analyzing the seven condition configurations with high row coverage and unique coverage in the obtained complex solutions and intermediate solutions, we found that outbreaks are most likely to occur in communities populated by disadvantaged populations. However, if lacking spatial-, capital-, and governance resilience, middle-class and even wealthy communities could also become areas where COVID-19 spreads easily.Conclusions: Three types of communities namely vulnerable communities, alienated communities, and inefficient communities have lower risk resilience. Spatial resilience, rather than social resilience, constitutes the key influencing factor of COVID-19-susceptible communities, and the dual deficiencies of social resilience and governance resilience are the common features of these communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since it was first identified, the epidemic scale of the recently emerged novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in Wuhan, China, has increased rapidly, with cases arising across China and other countries and regions. Using a transmission model, we estimate a basic reproductive number of 3.11 (95% CI, 2.39-4.13), indicating that 58-76% of transmissions must be prevented to stop increasing. We also estimate a case ascertainment rate in Wuhan of 5.0% (95% CI, 3.6-7.4). The true size of the epidemic may be significantly greater than the published case counts suggest, with our model estimating 21 022 (prediction interval, 11 090-33 490) total infections in Wuhan between 1 and 22 January. We discuss our findings in the light of more recent information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of industrialization and urbanization in China, energy and vehicle consumption have continued to increase in recent years and air pollution has become serious. In early 2020, Corona Virus Disease 2019 broke out in Wuhan, China. From January 29, 2020, several sources of the air pollution almost all stopped working, including gasoline burning vehicles, dust producing building sites, coal-fired factories, etc. Five indicators of the atmospheric environmental quality were observed from December 19, 2019 to April 30, 2020 in nine cities and 1-h average concentrations, 24-h average concentrations and Air Quality Index were assessed. The 1-h average concentrations of the nitrogen dioxide, the ozone and the sulfur dioxide showed obvious difference though the closure did not change the sequence of the five pollutants' concentrations in the air at diverse sampling moments. The changing of the 24-h average concentrations of the five pollutants indicated the amount of pollutants in the air were greatly affected by human activities. The nitrogen dioxide, the sulfur dioxide and the particulate matters decreased obviously in the closure. The air in the metropolis and the south-east cities were relatively clean and the pollutants' concentrations decreased slightly during the closure period. The northern and the heavy industrial cities showed significant drop on air pollution indicators and the air quality of the two city groups could be greatly improved if some effective measures could be taken of environmental management and regional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Healthcare workers (HWs) experienced high levels of work stress during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to a high risk of sleep disturbances. This meta-analysis aimed to explore the prevalence of sleep disturbances and sleep quality in Chinese HWs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: English (PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Library) and Chinese databases (WanFang, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, and SinoMed) were systematically and independently searched for relevant studies published from December 1, 2019, to May 20, 2020. The pooled prevalence of sleep disturbances and sleep quality were calculated using a random-effects model. Results: A total of 17 studies involving 12,682 Chinese HWs were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled prevalence of sleep disturbances in Chinese HWs was 45.1% (95% CI: 37.2–53.1%). We found that the prevalence of sleep disturbances varied among frontline, infected, and non-frontline HWs (Q = 96.96, p < 0.001); females and males (Q = 9.10, p = 0.003); studies using different assessment instruments (Q = 96.05, p < 0.001); and studies with different sample sizes (Q = 5.77, p = 0.016) and cut-off values (Q = 62.28, p < 0.001). The pooled mean total score of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was 9.83 (95% CI: 8.61–11.04). HWs in Wuhan had a higher total PSQI score than those in other regions (Q = 9.21, p = 0.002). Conclusion: Sleep disturbances were common in Chinese HWs during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in frontline and infected HWs. Our results indicate the heavy mental health burden on HWs during the COVID-19 pandemic in China and can provide other countries with valuable information to assist HWs during the crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the complexity of multi-tier decision-making in the planning and development of High-Speed Rail (HSR) stations in China, where relationships between central and local governments have been reformed whilst the HSR system has been built at a fast pace. By analysing field interview data and secondary information, the research addresses a key question about whether multi-tier governments play a concerted role in station area planning and development decision-making. The findings reveal that the siting of the station, the planning of the station area, and the development of the different sectors of the HSR station and its vicinity are outcomes of the interplay between the central and the local governments, each of which has their distinctive logic in discharging responsibilities and pursuing interests associated with the projects. In the siting of the Wuhan HSR station, the municipal and central governments interacted actively with each other to safeguard their visions of development, whilst in the planning and development of the station vicinity, both the municipal and the central administrations were passive to collaboration thus foregone an opportunity to develop an integrated HSR station project. • HSR stations and their vicinity were products of negotiations between multi-tier governments. • Governments had specific roles and distinctive interests associated with HSR stations. • Central and local government interacted through formal and informal institutions. • Existing formal institutions discouraged parties from collaboration. • Informal institutions helped resolve conflicts but not develop an integrated station area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the COVID‐19 lockdown (24 January–20 March) in China low air pollution levels were reported in the media as a consequence of reduced economic and social activities. Quantification of the pollution reduction is not straightforward due to effects of transport, meteorology, and chemistry. We have analyzed the NOx emission reductions calculated with an inverse algorithm applied to daily NO2 observations from TROPOMI onboard the Copernicus Sentinel‐5P satellite. This method allows the quantification of emission reductions per city and the analysis of emissions of maritime transport and of the energy sector separately. The reductions we found are 20–50% for cities, about 40% for power plants, and 15–40% for maritime transport depending on the region. The reduction in both emissions and concentrations shows a similar timeline consisting of a sharp reduction (34–50%) around the Spring festival and a slow recovery from mid‐February to mid‐March. Plain Language Summary: During the COVID‐19 lockdown in China, air quality had strongly improved. Here we study what sources were reduced and how much the reduction per city was. We used TROPOMI observations of the Sentinel‐5P satellite, which monitors the Earth's atmosphere daily. We focused on observations of the pollutant "nitrogen dioxide," an important precursor of air pollution in the atmosphere. With our novel methodology we are able to calculate the pollution back to the sources of the emissions, whether these are big cities, industrial regions, power plants, or busy shipping lanes. We applied this method to East China, where the 36 biggest Chinese cities are located. Almost all those cities showed strong emission reductions of 20–50% during the lockdown in February 2020. Besides urban China, we found an average emission reduction of 40% over coal power plants and a reduction in maritime transport by 15–40% depending on the region. The period of reduced emissions lasted until around the end of February, and the emissions slowly returned to normal during the month March 2020. Exception is the region Wuhan, the center of the COVID‐19 crisis, where emissions started to rebound since 8 April, the end of their lockdown period. Key Points: NOx emissions derived from TROPOMI observations show reductions for individual Chinese cities of about 35% due to the COVID‐19 lockdownEmissions of coal power plants and maritime transport show strong reductions (25–40%) during the lockdownUrban emissions rebound in March to levels before the lockdown, while emissions of power plants and maritime transport take longer to recover [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Over the past decade, the prevalence of allergic rhinitis (AR) in China increased and showed a trend of younger age. The clinical features of AR in primary schoolchildren are still not clear enough. Objective: To investigate the prevalence and epidemiological characteristics of AR among 6- to 12-year-old children in the central region of China. Methods: Children from 6 primary schools were randomly selected from urban area of Wuhan, which lies in the central region of China. The questionnaires were distributed by mobile APP and filled out by the children and their parents online together. AR was diagnosed by Score for Allergic Rhinitis. Logistic regression analysis was performed to assess the risk factors for AR. Results: A total of 5550 valid questionnaires were returned for evaluation. The prevalence of AR among 6- to 12-year-old children in urban area of Wuhan was 28.6%. Multivariate analysis revealed that male (odds ratio [OR] = 1.521, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [1.335, 1.732]), family history of atopy (OR = 3.220, 95% CI = [2.818, 3.681]), previous food allergy (OR = 1.590, 95% CI = [1.302, 1.942]), air purifier (OR = 1.420, 95% CI = [1.240, 1.625]), exposure to dust (OR = 1.764, 95% CI = [1.410, 2.207]), maternal exposure to smoke during pregnancy (OR = 1.242, 95% CI = [1.047, 1.473]), living in towns (OR = 1.468, 95% CI = [1.043, 2.006]) or metropolis (OR = 1.629, 95% CI = [1.205, 2.201]) before 2 years old, frequent application of antibiotics are risk factors for AR, while daily outdoor time for more than 1 hour (OR = 0.770, 95% CI = [0.673, 0.881]) and breastfeeding for more than 6 months (OR = 0.799, 95% CI = [0.701, 0.910]) reduced the risk significantly. Conclusions: We found an unexpectedly high prevalence of AR among primary schoolchildren aged 6 to 12 years in the central region of China. Both genetic and environmental factors were associated with the development of AR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Since the first cluster of cases was identified in Wuhan City, China, in December 2019, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) rapidly spreads globally. Scientists have made strides in estimating key transmission and epidemiological parameters. In particular, accumulating evidence points to a substantial fraction of asymptomatic or subclinical infections, which influences our understanding of the transmission potential and severity of this emerging disease. In this study, we derive estimates of the transmissibility and virulence of COVID-19 in Wuhan City, China, by reconstructing the underlying transmission dynamics using multiple data sources.Methods: We employ statistical methods and publicly available epidemiological datasets to jointly derive estimates of transmissibility and severity associated with the novel coronavirus. For this purpose, the daily series of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths in Wuhan City together with epidemiological data of Japanese repatriated from Wuhan City on board government-chartered flights were integrated into our analysis.Results: Our posterior estimates of basic reproduction number (R) in Wuhan City, China, in 2019-2020 reached values at 3.49 (95% CrI 3.39-3.62) with a mean serial interval of 6.0 days, and the enhanced public health intervention after January 23 in 2020 was associated with a significantly reduced R at 0.84 (95% CrI 0.81-0.88), with the total number of infections (i.e., cumulative infections) estimated at 1,906,634 (95% CrI 1,373,500-2,651,124) in Wuhan City, elevating the overall proportion of infected individuals to 19.1% (95% CrI 13.5-26.6%). We also estimated the most recent crude infection fatality ratio (IFR) and time-delay adjusted IFR at 0.04% (95% CrI 0.03-0.06%) and 0.12% (95% CrI 0.08-0.17%), respectively, estimates that are substantially smaller than the crude CFR estimated at 4.06%.Conclusions: We have estimated key epidemiological parameters of the transmissibility and virulence of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, during January-February 2020 using an ecological modeling approach that is suitable to infer epidemiological parameters with quantified uncertainty from partial observations collected by surveillance systems. Our estimate of time-delay adjusted IFR falls in the range of the median IFR estimates based on multiple serological studies conducted in several areas of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]