Fra SCMP:
- All public transport closed down in city of Wuhan, in central China, to try to limit spread of infection as number of confirmed cases nears 600
- Wuhan is described as a ghost town, with malls and restaurants empty
Local residents had rushed to railway stations and the airport after the announcement of the lockdown on Wednesday night. The government told residents not to leave the city without “special reasons”.
It came as the number of people confirmed to be infected on the mainland reached 571, with 17 deaths, as of midnight on Wednesday, according to China’s National Health Commission. The southern Guangdong province, bordering Hong Kong, had reported six new infections, taking its confirmed total to 32, according to People’s Daily.
Rail alert
Wuhan railway station was packed with passengers at 7am on Thursday, but not all of them wanted to escape from the city.
“The Wuhan government said they started using temperature screening equipment last week, but when I went through the entrance, I didn’t see any of those,” he said. “No one checked my temperature.”
On a high-speed train from Wuhan to Dalian, in northeast China, almost all passengers leaving Wuhan were wearing surgical masks. But many passengers boarding the train two hours later in Xuchang, old and young, were not. One, a man in his 60s, said he had never heard of the coronavirus or any advice to wear a mask.
Other cities had stepped up precautions. In Handan, a city 790km (491 miles) from Wuhan with a population of 9 million, medical personnel were taking passengers’ temperature at the station exit.
Later on Thursday, Wang Wei, a professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, had to abandon his plan to spend Lunar New Year in his hometown of Suizhou, 150km away.
“I can’t leave even if I want to,” Wang said. “I have bought lots of groceries yesterday, enough for several days, to remove the necessity to go out.”
Road checks
Medical personnel were stationed at toll gates and checkpoints on major highways to perform checks on people leaving the city.
A resident surnamed Ding who was driving out of Wuhan said the outward lanes were jammed, with very few vehicles heading into the city.