China Hits a Coronavirus Milestone: No New Local Infections

China on Thursday reported no new local infections for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic began, reports the New York Times . Critics said earlier missteps to contain the virus forced China's government to crack down with extreme travel and quarantine restrictions, resulting in severe human trauma and economic loss. "The actions taken in China have almost brought to an end their first wave of infections," acknowledged Ben Cowling at Hong Kong University's School of Public Health. "The question is what will happen if there's a second wave, because the kind of measures that China has implemented are not necessarily sustainable in the long term." With China starting to gradually relax its restrictions, experts call for broadening testing in communities and monitoring travelers entering the country. Some residents in Wuhan, where the outbreak began, hope that the worst is over. However, there remains a widespread conviction that the city was sacrificed to save China, as almost two-thirds of the country's total infections and more than 75 percent of its fatalities were concentrated there.