Wuhan, China, is cut off from the outside world in an unprecedented quarantine after a deadly virus killed 17 and infected 571
The Paper/Twitter/Getty Images/Business Insider
Wuhan, China, was cut off from the outside world Thursday morning, with trains, planes, and other transit suspended.
The move came shortly after the official death toll of the coronavirus outbreak rose to 17, with 571 people sickened in China.
Authorities told people not to enter or leave the city without good reason. Wearing a protective mask in public is now mandatory.
Footage published on Twitter showed rows of soldiers guarding a train station, while departure boards showed blank destinations.
The Chinese city of Wuhan — the center of a viral outbreak that has killed 17 people and infected nearly 600 in China — has been locked down.
As of 10 a.m. on Thursday local time, public transport had been shut off.
Buses, planes, subways, and ferries were shut down in the city of some 11 million people, a measure without precedent in its scale.
Residents of the city were told not to enter or leave, even using their own transportation, without an overwhelmingly good reason to do so. All organized public gatherings were canceled.
Foreign news correspondents described driving out of the city before the deadline hit.
Janis Mackey Frayer of NBC News said she and her colleagues left before dawn on Thursday. Tom Cheshire of Sky News also described leaving by road. He said his driver believed the roads were closed behind them.
It came as the official figures tallying those infected by the coronavirus known as 2019-nCoV continued to rise.
The latest update, accurate to midnight Wednesday, said 571 cases had been recorded in China, 17 of them fatal.
Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images
On the Chinese social network Weibo, the top trending topic was #WuhanLockdown, according to The New York Times.
Footage of the city just after the lockdown was published on Twitter by The Paper, a Chinese-language digital news outlet.
It showed rows of Chinese soldiers outside Hankou Railway Station, a central transit hub in Wuhan. Many people were gathered outside to watch, including one who took a selfie in front of the barriers.
Inside a ticket hall, a departure board showed a sea of red with blanked-out destinations. Ticket booths were shuttered, and automated machines seemed not to work.
Inside the city, officials insisted on mandatory face masks in public places and encouraged people to report anyone not using a mask to the authorities, according to the outlet Sixth Tone.
According to the Reuters news agency, people in Wuhan rushed to grocery stores to stockpile supplies, with shelves quickly emptying of staples like meat, vegetables, and instant noodles. Some stores were said to be raising prices to capitalize on the extra demand.
Experts cited by The New York Times said cutting off a city the size of Wuhan had never been attempted before.
Wuhan has a larger population than New York City but is an even more significant transit hub given its central location in China.
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