China locks down cities over respiratory virus outbreak
Beijing, Thursday
China locked down nearly 20 million in two cities at the centre of a deadly virus outbreak on Thursday, banning planes and trains from leaving in an unprecedented move aimed at containing the disease which has already spread to other countries.
The respiratory virus — coronavirus — has claimed 17 lives since emerging from a seafood and animal market in Wuhan, infected hundreds of other people nationwide and been detected as far away as the United States.
Streets and centres in Wuhan, a major port city in central Hubei province with a population of 11 million people, were eerily quiet after authorities told residents not to leave town “without a special reason”.
Trains and planes out of Wuhan were indefinitely suspended, tollways on roads out the city were closed, leading to fear and panic for those who were trapped.
Hours later, authorities in neighbouring Huanggang announced that public transport and train services would be suspended at midnight, while people were told to not leave the city of 7.5 million.
All of Huanggang’s cinemas, internet cafes, and the central market will close.
A third city, 1.1 million-population Ezhou, announced the train station had been temporarily closed earlier in the day.
“We are feeling as though it is the end of the world,” said one Wuhan resident on China’s Twitter-like Weibo platform, voicing concerns about shortages of food and disinfectant.
Family reunions
In Beijing, the government cancelled gatherings that usually attract throngs at temples during the New Year holiday.
Wuhan’s train station and airport, which should have been packed with people coming travelling for holiday family reunions, were almost empty except for workers on Thursday afternoon.
The few people wandering in the streets of the city were wearing masks as mandated by police. At a shopping centre that would have been packed in normal times, a man who works there said he understood the government’s measures.
“Even if we can’t celebrate the New Year this year, there’s always next year,” said the man surnamed Sun.
More than 600 people have been infected with the virus across China, with most cases found in Wuhan, where a seafood market that illegally sold wild animals has been identified as the epicentre of the outbreak. Like SARS, it can be passed among people through the respiratory tract.
The has also been detected in Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States. -AFP
