Wuhan bans cars, Hong Kong closes schools as virus spreads
Source: AP
By KEN MORITSUGU
BEIJING (AP) — The virus-hit Chinese city of Wuhan, already on lockdown, banned most vehicle use downtown and Hong Kong said it would close schools for two weeks as authorities scrambled Saturday to stop the spread of an illness that has infected more than 1,200 people and killed 41.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said her government will raise its response level to emergency, the highest one, and close primary and secondary schools for two more weeks on top of next week’s Lunar New Year holiday. They will re-open Feb. 17.
Lam said that direct flights and trains from Wuhan would be blocked. The outbreak began in the city in central China and has spread nationwide and overseas, fueled by millions of people traveling during the country’s biggest holiday.
In a sign of the growing strain on Wuhan’s health care system, the official Xinhua news agency reported that the city planned to build a second makeshift hospital with about 1,000 beds. The city previously announced that construction of a hospital of the same size was underway and expected to be completed Feb. 3.
In this Friday, Jan. 24, 2020, photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, a medical worker attends to a patient in the intensive care unit at Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University in Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province. China expanded its lockdown against the deadly new virus to an unprecedented 36 million people and rushed to build a prefabricated, 1,000-bed hospital for victims Friday as the outbreak cast a pall over Lunar New Year, the country's biggest, most festive holiday. (Xiong Qi/Xinhua via AP)
Read more: https://apnews.com/b2810cebad305f66112a0c68be0f8c9a
= new reply since forum marked as read
Now, they can't leave.
Here's an article I found from 3 hrs ago:
'Nobody can leave': Trapped Wuhan residents stock up
Authorities extended transport bans to 17 other cities around Wuhan in a gargantuan effort to control the SARS-like virus, restricting travel for around 56 million in Hubei province. While there are restrictions on anyone leaving Wuhan, a few people were allowed to enter the city through the barricade: Desperately needed medical workers whose holidays were cut short to help overwhelmed hospital ..
AFP
Updated: Jan 25, 2020, 05.12 PM IST
WUHAN: Police at a roadblock on the outskirts of Wuhan turned away cars trying to leave the virus-stricken city on Saturday, as other anxious residents trapped inside spent the Lunar New Year stocking up on masks and medical supplies. Authorities have prevented anyone from leaving Wuhan, the city of 11 million people at the heart of the viral outbreak which has so far infected nearly 1,300 people and killed 41 others.
AFP saw a steady trickle of cars approaching the roadblocks around 20 kilometres (12 miles) east of the city centre on Saturday morning, only for police in fluorescent jackets wearing masks to tell them to turn around.
The barricade, at one of the tolls for highways exiting the city, was blocked with red and yellow plastic barriers and cones.
"Nobody can leave," a policeman told AFP.
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It sounds like they're using manned barricades?
not just in containing people, but I wonder if these bugs can be spread by mail, packages and incoming/outgoing food shipments.
Also, if an outbreak started in a rural area, the disease would likely be brought into urban areas because healthcare has shifted heavily toward our cities. Such movements of people in our nation are hard to control.
The U.S. economy would be very stressed if this was done over a significant area.....
I'm shocked tRump hasn't tried to politicize this event.
