The respiratory virus 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.
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.A third city, 1.1 million-population Ezhou, announced the train station had been temporarily closed earlier in the day.
In Beijing, the government cancelled massive gatherings that usually attract throngs at temples during the New Year holiday.Wuhan’s train station and the airport, which should have been packed with people coming travelling for holiday family reunions, were almost empty except for workers on Thursday afternoon.At a shopping centre that would have been packed in normal times, a man who works there said he understood the government’s measures.
The 17 people who died in China were aged from 48 to 89, and had pre-existing health conditions, Chinese health authorities said Thursday. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said “more information” was needed but he also praised China’s “very, very strong measures” that will help control the epidemic and “minimise the chances of this outbreak spreading internationally”.
“There are many unknowns to address in this event including clinical severity and the true extent and nature of disease transmission,” said Michael Ryan, head of the WHO’s health emergencies programme.