(Bloomberg) --
In Wuhan, the central Chinese city that's ground zero of the deadly new virus spreading through the country, a sense of fear is rapidly taking hold.
On Thursday morning, the city's some 11 million residents woke to learn it's now in lockdown, with public transport halted, flights out canceled and trains not running right on the eve of the Lunar New Year holiday that traditionally unites families for days of feasting.
It's a dramatic escalation for Wuhan, which has found itself at the epicenter of a potentially global health crisis after a market selling freshly slaughtered meat and live animals was identified as the source of an outbreak that's killed 17 people and infected hundreds.
The outbreak has residents questioning their every move.
#coronavirus cases has risen to 440 and the death toll to 9, China's health authorities said.
More @business: https://t.co/xk4Q6IYe0C #中国新型肺炎 #中国肺炎 #WuhanVirus pic.twitter.com/BvqSW0Ng5UStudent Yi Zixuan is terrified a meal on Sunday with friends near a hospital may have exposed her to the new coronavirus, which causes pneumonia in those infected.
“I didn't wear a mask,” said Yi, 21. “I've canceled a trip to Changsha during the Lunar New Year holiday and I'm even canceling my plans to watch movies at the cinema. I'll try to stay home as much as I can.”
With the death toll from the virus rising markedly last weekend, and more cases identified, life in Wuhan has gone from normal to fraught in a matter of days. Within hours of the travel restrictions being announced, hundreds of cars queued in barely-moving traffic at a toll booth for a highway out of the city.
Home to a bustling port on the Yangtze River, Wuhan is a transport hub for central China with a number of high-speed rail lines converging there. A former British settlement, it still retains architecture from that period, with steel and car manufacturing among the main employers.
When Yi left home Monday morning, she says about 20% of people wore protective face masks; by evening, she estimated the number had soared to about 80%. Across the city, people are already finding ways to carry on -- with caution. Yi's mother is still gathering with friends to play mahjong, but now they check each other's body temperatures before playing.
“Our fate is at the mercy of the Gods,” Yi said. “It's hard to tell who carries the virus so we have no other options.”
For Wuhan native Guo Zirui, that means an unusual separation. One of the 21-year-old student's parents works at a local hospital so he says his family decided to send him back to his dormitory in Beijing, where he's studying at Tsinghua University.
“The hospital is not a hotel so medical staff have to go back home after work,” he said, speaking by mobile phone from Wuhan railway station on his way back to the capital on Wednesday afternoon. “The situation is still unclear and we don't know if it's safe for me to keep staying in Wuhan.”
What Bloomberg's Economists Say...
“Lessons learned from SARS should also equip both mainland China and Hong Kong to manage risks more effectively. SARS fixer Wang Qishan is now one of the most senior leaders in China. Vigilance is warranted. Panic is not.”
Tom Orlik and Chang Shu, Bloomberg Economics
For the full note click here
The New Year holiday -- when hundreds of millions of people are set to travel in the biggest annual migration of humans on the planet -- is providing a significant challenge for Chinese authorities striving to contain the outbreak that has also infected people from Thailand to the U.S.
On Wednesday, China announced a stepping up of controls at transport points across the country and increased screening of travelers. But officials admitted there's much they don't know about the new virus, which belongs to the same family of bugs as SARS, a respiratory outbreak that killed about 800 people 17 years ago.
China's Lunar New Year Nightmare: 3 Billion Trips and a Virus
The coronavirus symptoms include fever, cough or chest tightness, and difficulty breathing.The ban on travel from Wuhan was announced in the wee hours on Thursday morning and not enforced until 10am, triggering a rush for the exits. Traffic began to build up at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport around 4am with people waiting in lines a hundred meters long at check-in counters, according to a report by Beijing News.
There was animated debate on China's social media platforms over whether the ban was too late or too drastic. An online blogger called Rapid Reviews noted that thousands of students and migrant workers in the city already had left for home, and that officials missed a window of opportunity to contain the outbreak.
Stretched Hospitals
Others felt the lockdown goes too far, leaving Wuhan people to suffer without bus or subway services. “What if a person gets sick?” said a post by Volare. “Do Wuhan people deserve to just die in their own homes?”
There were reports that Wuhan's hospitals already appear stretched. A visit to four hospitals by reporters from Chengdu Media Group found some people waited up to six hours to see a doctor, it said via its official WeChat and Weibo social media platforms. Patients also said some hospitals had run out of test kits used to identify the novel coronavirus, it reported.
Involuntary quarantines have a questionable track record and can be counterproductive, said Jeremy Konyndyk, a former Obama administration director of USAID's Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance. A quarantine around a city larger than New York will be challenging to enforce, and past precedents suggest it could lead to more hiding of cases and less voluntary compliance with public health measures, he said.
The only way to strictly enforce a quarantine is by deploying “a massive security apparatus” like the People's Liberation Army, said Adam Kamradt-Scott, an associate professor at the University of Sydney who specializes in global health security. China's policy makers need to walk a fine line between controlling the spread of the virus and the risk of social disorder from enforcing a quarantine on a populous city like Wuhan, he said.
Military Cordon
“So I think the Chinese authorities have probably done what they can in this circumstance,” he said.
A video circulating on WeChat, the country's most popular messaging app, after 10am on Thursday showed men in military uniforms blocking the entrances to what appeared to be the railway station in Hankou, a district close to the Wuhan market where people were first infected.
One person who escaped before the lockdown was Yi's younger brother. He was scheduled to fly from Wuhan to New York on Jan. 24 to start his term at New York University two days later. He got a refund for his ticket from Wuhan and Thursday morning left Wuhan by car to fly to New York from Changsha, about 350 kilometers (217 miles) away, says Yi.
For those left behind, there's a feeling of hurt that the world has seemingly turned against Wuhan, where it's seen as dangerous just to breathe the air.
--With assistance from Dong Lyu, April Ma, Dandan Li and Sybilla Gross.
To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Kevin Hamlin in Beijing at khamlin@bloomberg.net;Lin Zhu in Beijing at lzhu243@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sharon Chen at schen462@bloomberg.net, Jeffrey Black
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
With assistance from Bloomberg
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