From 10am on Thursday, all urban buses, subways, ferries and long-distance passenger transport are suspended in Wuhan
Passengers at the Wuhan train station early on Thursday morning, not long before the travel ban took effect. Chinese state media outlet CCTV said on Wednesday that officials in Wuhan have announced a complete travel ban on its residents amid the coronavirus outbreak that has killed 17 people and infected more than 550 others througout China.
The ban, which was issued by the outbreak command authority in Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus, said that from 10am on Thursday, urban buses, subways, ferries and long-distance passenger transport would be suspended in the city.
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Flights and trains departing from Wuhan will also be temporarily suspended. The notice did not say when the services would resume. Wuhan is one of the four major railway hubs in China.
The notice did not mention private cars but said “citizens should not leave the city unless there are special conditions”.
The city’s ban is to “best prevent and control the epidemic of the new type of coronavirus infection, effectively cut off the transmission of the virus, and curb the spread of the epidemic” to “ensure the safety and health of the people”, the notice said.
Some residents began rushing to Wuhan’s Hankou Railway Station and airport soon after the government announcement. A man surnamed Cui, who works in Wuhan and declined to give his first name, was among the crowd desperately trying to get out of the city before the ban took effect at 10am.
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“Train tickets are not available on travel apps after 23:30pm, so I rushed to the train station and managed to buy a ticket to my hometown in Henan at the ticket window. I don’t want to be locked in this city for one or two month after the ban,” Cui told the South China Morning Post.
The Wuhan municipal government also issued a notice mandating that everyone wear masks in public places, and that staff of state departments and public institutions wear masks while they are on duty.
Before Wuhan’s announcement, Jiangsu province posted an order banning buses departing from any of its cities to Wuhan, and it set up special lanes in airport and train stations to inspect passengers from Wuhan.
On social media, the travel ban was welcomed by some, but others questioned why the authority didn’t issue it earlier.
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Concerns have also been raised about the “one size fits all” solution in Wuhan. “How can patients go to hospital if they don’t have private cars, and how can journalists leave the city if they want to leave?” one person wrote on Weibo.
Most of the infections and all of the deaths have occurred in Hubei province, where Wuhan is located, including 440 cases in the province itself. Many of those sickened work or live near the city’s Huanan Wholesale Seafood Market, which experts believe is the source of the outbreak, with the virus jumping from animals on sale there.