Residents in Wuhan, Ezhou and Huanggang hoard supplies and isolate themselves at home.
A sense of panic has spread in China as three cities accounting for an area of 20 million people were put on lockdown in an attempt to contain a deadly virus.
On Thursday, authorities banned transport links from Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, as well as the nearby central Chinese cities of Huanggang and Ezhou, suspending buses, subways, ferries and shutting the airport and train stations to outgoing passengers.
The blockade comes as at least 633 people have been infected with the coronavirus, from the same family of viruses that gave rise to Sars. Officials worry the upcoming lunar new year holiday, when hundreds of millions of Chinese will criss-cross the country, will exacerbate an outbreak that has reached almost all of the country’s provinces, as well as the US, Taiwan, South Korea, Thailand, Japan, Macau and Hong Kong.
Chinese authorities said on Thursday that 95 patients were in critical condition. So far, 17 people have died since the virus was detected in late December, all of them in Wuhan.
In Wuhan, supermarket shelves were empty and local markets sold out of produce as residents hoarded supplies and isolated themselves at home. Petrol stations were overwhelmed as drivers stocked up on fuel, exacerbated by rumours that reserves had run out. Local residents said pharmacies had sold out of face masks.
Chinese authorities said on Thursday that 95 patients were in critical condition. So far, 17 people have died since the virus was detected in late December, all of them in Wuhan.
In Wuhan, supermarket shelves were empty and local markets sold out of produce as residents hoarded supplies and isolated themselves at home. Petrol stations were overwhelmed as drivers stocked up on fuel, exacerbated by rumours that reserves had run out. Local residents said pharmacies had sold out of face masks.
“It feels a lot more panicky now,” said Kathleen Bell, a headhunter living in Wuhan, who is originally from Cheshire in the UK. Bell, who had planned to leave next week for the spring festival holiday, bought a few weeks’ supply of food to wait out the quarantine.
“I think you’ve got to stay calm. These are regulations put into place to prevent the spread so you just assume it’s going to be effective and if you don’t go out you’ll be alright,” she said.
China’s transport ministry has suspended all shuttle buses and ferries going to Wuhan. Hong Kong officials announced on Thursday they would turn two holiday camps, including a former military barracks, into quarantine zones for people who may have come into contact with carriers of the Wuhan virus.
“It’s truly an extraordinary development. You have a city of 10 million people being shut down,” Dali Yang, a professor of political science focusing on China at the University of Chicago, said of Wuhan. “In many ways the local leadership and the population are definitely not prepared. This is truly an emergency for them.”
On Thursday, some residents raced to leave Wuhan before the de facto quarantine was put into effect at 10am local time (0200 GMT), lining up at the airport and at train stations. Local authorities, announcing the emergency measure at about 2am on Thursday, said citizens would be notified later when the restrictions were lifted.
Scientists believe the virus originated from a seafood market in Wuhan that also sold wild animals and likely jumped from an animal to a human. Officials have said it is transmissible from one person to another, and could mutate further.
Anxiety has been exacerbated by reports that sick patients are being turned away from hospitals without enough room. “Infected people could be right beside you and you wouldn’t know. That is what is scarier,” said Xiao, who has not left home since 19 January.
Wuhan’s disease prevention and control centre released a statement on Thursday asking residents not to panic and not to stockpile. “At the present time, Wuhan’s reserves of food, medicine and other supplies are all enough,” it said.
Authorities have made an effort to update citizens regularly on the situation and state media have attempted to frame the shutdown as a battle being waged by the people of Wuhan for the good of the country. The state-run People’s Daily posted on Weibo: “Come on Wuhan, let us win this disease prevention war together!”
But residents are wary of the information provided by their government, which in recent weeks repeatedly said the virus was not serious and was still “controllable”.
“I am a bit panicked because before the government said it wasn’t serious so no one thought it was a big deal,” said Wang Ying, 26, a government worker who described going out amid large crowds on New Year’s Eve, despite the virus being detected then.
“Then this morning, Wuhan was suddenly sealed off. I think the government’s early warnings were not enough.”
Others criticised local authorities, who held a lunar new year banquet of 40,000 people days before authorities announced the virus could be transmitted between humans.
“It’s been a month since the first case was discovered and only now do they think of closing the city? This Wuhan emergency response is a little slow, right???” one internet user wrote on Weibo.
As posts circulated online that food prices had gone up in Wuhan, internet users called for government intervention. One said: “The government needs to address this. If things become too expensive, people will definitely panic and when people feel unsafe, terrible things happen. Right now people are fighting over supplies, soon they may just be fighting.”
Lets see how long it takes a clueless mod to transfer this thread to the politics section.
OT, how are you feeling about this? No worries be happy or are you already typing from your bunker?
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