China's unprecedented quarantine of 11 million people in Wuhan is 2 weeks old. Here's what it is like in the isolated city.
The city of Wuhan, China, was placed under a lockdown on January 23, leaving around 11 million people quarantined in the epicenter of the virus.
China cut off transport links inside and outside the city to try and stop the virus, and ordered places like cinemas and cafes to close.
The World Health Organization called cutting off a city as large as Wuhan "unprecedented in public health history," and said it isn't sure if the strategy will work.
China later extended the measures to other cities, covering around 60 million people, creating what is thought to be the largest quarantine in human history.
People immediately started to stockpile food and fuel worried that supplies would run out with the city cut off.
Authorities urged people not to stockpile as some stores ran out of meat, vegetables and instant noodles.
But fleets of trucks have been bringing food to the city under orders from the government, which has vowed not to let prices increase. Drivers' temperatures are checked and their trucks are sprayed with disinfectant.
Some are unsure if they will be paid, but said they volunteered to help the city anyway.
Driver Ma Chenglong said he volunteered straight away.
"When the country is in trouble, we common people have a duty," The New York Times reported.
Here's what a line of trucks looked like in January:
This video shows two key things about #nCoV2019 lockdown of #Wuhan :
- no vehicles are leaving the city (empty right lanes)
- huge congestion inbound, bringing supplies & food to the city.
China is the only nation on earth that can mobilize on this scale. https://t.co/S3yebY0yqJ
And medical supplies are also constantly arriving into the city.
But because of the travel restrictions, and fears over the virus that can spread from human to human, the streets are largely deserted. This drone footage shows what it's like:
Drone footage of the city this month shows eerie stillness across the city.
Satellite photos also reveal just how empty the streets are.
The photos, taken on the city's eighth day of quarantine, show the city looking like a ghost town.
Some people are venturing outside, including to buy supplies. Decorations for Chinese New Year serve as a reminder for how the usually huge holiday is being celebrated much differently this year.
For those that do go shopping, they're met with in-store announcements about how to stop the virus spreading.
Inside a supermarket in Wuhan, a pre-recorded message with more instructions on how to stop the spread of the coronavirus was playing on a loop. China really knows how to drill down on a message when it wants to. pic.twitter.com/2NiwKGNoNo
— Amy Qin (@amyyqin) February 4, 2020People have largely been staying in their homes. Video footage showed people yelling out of their apartments to support each other, including saying: "Wuhan come on!"
The footage, shared on Reddit, shows dozens of residents shouting their support to the city.
You can watch it here:
Wuhan People shouting "武汉加油" (Wuhan come on!) out of their windows to give each other strength. from r/WuhanAnd state media says that people are reporting running around their apartments — running in circles around beds or even running about 62 miles (100 kilometers) in their living room. People are even sharing their progress with each other on social media.
Source: CNN.
This boredom has inevitably turned into joke and meme creation.
Some people are poking fun at the lack of medical masks used to prevent the spread of the illness by doing things like wearing inflatable costumes outside.
Here's an example:
We've reached a point where people are starting to wear inflatable costumes on the streets to protect themselves against the #coronavirus. According to Chinese media, a medical expert said this is "unnecessary" and that washing hands and wearing face masks will do 😂😂😂 pic.twitter.com/OvhOD76kum
— Manya Koetse (@manyapan) February 6, 2020But even as people have sought to find ways to stay connected, some are slipping through the cracks. A 17-year-old with cerebral palsy died after he was left alone for six days as his father was quarantined.
The South China Morning Post reported that Yan Cheng was found dead on January 29.
His father had appealed for help on social media, writing: "I have two disabled sons. My older son Yan Cheng has cerebral palsy. He cannot move his body, he cannot speak or look after himself. He has already been at home by himself for six days, with nobody to bathe him or change his clothes and nothing to eat or drink."
Two local officials were fired, and an investigation into the death is underway.
'Yan Cheng was found dead on Wednesday, a week after his father & brother were placed in quarantine. The teen's father had posted on Chinese social media platform Weibo appealing for help & explaining that his son had been left alone without food or water'https://t.co/NLBZVBEf0K
— Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) February 3, 2020People who are found to need treatment are now being forced into quarantine.
China's Vice Premier Sun Chunlan visited Wuhan on Thursday, where she said that anyone who needed treatment should, if needed, be rounded up and forced into a quarantine, describing the country as being under "wartime conditions."
And as many as 50,000 pets have also been trapped, as their owners are quarantined or unable to return to the city. People are breaking into homes to save animals trapped in homes at the request of their owners, but volunteers are overwhelmed.
Source: Reuters
As many pets are left alone when their owners can’t get home due to #coronavirus, a Wuhan NGO has helped more than 400 families feed pets for free. After getting the owners' authorization to open locks, volunteers film how they take care of the animals. https://t.co/yk8Gl56iXu pic.twitter.com/P7OeDGkwWs
— The Paper 澎湃新闻 (@thepapercn) February 6, 2020China is now is ordering the city's 11 million residents to report their body temperatures every day.
People find themselves facing screenings as they go about their daily lives.
These is not yet any definitive cure for the virus, but people in Wuhan are trying to get their hands on HIV medication after it was suggested as a potential cure.
Medics around the world are holding clinical trials to test if HIV medication could work as a treatment.
The streets and the inside of buildings are sprayed with disinfectant to try and stop the virus from spreading.
China is using trucks to spray cities, including Wuhan.
Some people are also being kept isolated in hotels, where food is delivered to them.
People are disinfected before entering the hotels.
Many international brands have closed their stores in Wuhan, and some have also done so in other parts of China.
Source: Reuters
The city has turned public spaces like sports centers and exhibition halls into makeshift hospitals.
The venues have thousands of beds, where they scan observe people who have mild symptoms and give emergency aid to people.
While other people are being brought for treatment in newly built hospitals that were constructed in just days.
Some people are getting medical treatment outside or in their cars because they are scared of the number of sick people in hospitals.
A photo tweeted by New York Times journalist Amy Qin shows patients sitting on the pavement outside a Wuhan hospital, getting IV drips outside or in their cars.
They reportedly said they didn't want to go inside the hospital because there were "too many sick people."
At one hospital, we stumbled upon a jarring scene: patients were sitting outside, 5 ft apart, getting IV drips on ledges and in their cars. Some were couples and even entire families. They didn’t want to be inside cuz they said there were too many sick ppl. pic.twitter.com/B5Yb6SQOi7
— Amy Qin (@amyyqin) February 4, 2020Medical workers are regularly disinfected.
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