China: Wuhan Residents Trapped along with 14 Other Cities — Total Lockdown — Thousands Have Coronavirus

Residents of the Chinese city at the centre of the country’s coronavirus crisis fear they are ‘trapped’ and will all be infected because of the government lockdown which has stopped anyone from leaving.  

Authorities today scrambled to shut tourist attractions and public transport systems in 14 cities in a bid to stop the spread of the deadly new coronavirus that has killed at least 26 people.

In a drastic turn of events, part of the Great Wall of China and Disneyland in Shanghai were closed today as authorities desperately try to stop people spreading the Wuhan coronavirus.

Thirteen cities, home to around 40million people, are reported to have followed Wuhan’s example and gone into some form of lockdown in the past 24 hours with public transport halted and roads closed.

A man living in Wuhan today told MailOnline people there are ‘all trapped’ and and he fears he and his family will become infected if they aren’t allowed to leave the city.

The man, who is not a Chinese citizen, is part of an international community who are all ‘panicked’, he said, and want to get out of the city before they are made ill.

A report published today warned China’s deadly new virus could have infected 350,000 people in a single city by the end of the month, according to experts who warn doctors are only diagnosing one in every 20 cases. 

Scientists now say thousands of people might catch the virus without ever knowing they have had it, making it far easier to spread than was initially feared.

A second patient was diagnosed in the US today – a woman in Chicago – and 63 other people in 22 states are being monitored for possible cases . Across the Atlantic, British authorities have tested 14 people but all were negative – a small number of other people are expected to go through tests today.

Other shocking developments in the outbreak today include: 

• Four people in Australia have been quarantined – two in Queensland and two in New South Wales – for testing
• Nepal has confirmed its first case of the infection, making it the 10th territory outside of China to do so
• Chinese New Year celebrations planned for this weekend have been cancelled in Beijing and Hong Kong
• Officially, at least 900 people around the world have been infected with coronavirus and 26 have died
• Japan has confirmed its second case and a fifth patient was diagnosed in Thailand today, Friday
• Footage has emerged reportedly showing military personnel guarding a train station
• Videos from inside hospitals show patients crammed into overcrowded corridors and laid on the floor
• Photos have emerged of Chinese construction workers starting urgent building of a new hospital in Wuhan

A man living in Wuhan, who is a foreign national and did not want to be identified, today told MailOnline he feared thousands of foreign nationals are in the city unable to leave because of the Chinese government’s drastic shutdown.

He told MailOnline: ‘Due to the recent lock down, we all are trapped now. Several international students and workers have families here. I also have a baby. The situation is very serious here. If they keep everyone inside Wuhan I am afraid we all shall get infected.’

The man said the government is using online channels and TV programming to tell Wuhan residents to stay at home and he feared officials would be angry at insiders for sharing information with the outside world.

‘People are panicked,’ he added. ‘It is advised by the government and university authorities not to go out, stay at home and call a hospital in case of having any symptoms.

‘Yesterday the government announced the travel ban and, soon after, people rushed to the markets to buy a lot of food for the next several days. Today, almost all the shops are empty and closed.

‘I am in contact with a big international community in Wuhan. Everyone is panicked.

‘Most of them are trying to contact their countries’ embassies for help… but no significant development has been made yet.

‘Everyone is panicked and wants to flee the China and go back to their countries or at least to move to a safer city in China.’

A report produced by researchers from Lancaster University in England, the University of Florida and the University of Glasgow, estimated that only one in 20 coronavirus cases are being diagnosed.

Dr Jonathan Read, a biostatistics researcher at Lancaster, wrote with colleagues: ‘If no change in control or transmission happens, then we expect further outbreaks to occur in other Chinese cities, and that infections will continue to be exported to international destinations at an increasing rate.

‘In 14 days’ time (4 February 2020), our model predicts the number of infected people in Wuhan to be greater than 250 thousand (prediction interval, 164,602 to 351,396).’

Dr Read told MailOnline: ‘The estimate we came back with was that one in 20 people becoming infected are getting detected and confirmed as cases. There is potentially a lot of people not recognised.

‘This could be for a number of reasons. One that springs to mind the most, common with respiratory and flu-like viruses, is a lot of people will get sick and never seek medical help. Unless you present yourself to a doctor or a hospital you won’t get counted.’

Professor Neil Ferguson, from Imperial College London, said: ‘It’s winter – it’s an enormous city with lots of people with cold and flu. People would realise they were feeling ill, but not that they have the coronavirus.’

And Professor Paul Hunter, from the University of East Anglia, added: ‘If it’s [the virus] relatively mild, there is potential it has been spread in people that aren’t ill.

‘Any infection can range from making people really sick and then causing mild flu-like symptom. We can miss a lot of the mild cases.’

The fear of infections spreading fast led to dramatic shutdowns all over China today.

Shanghai Disney Resort posted on its website: ‘In response to the prevention and control of the disease outbreak and in order to ensure the health and safety of our guests and cast, Shanghai Disney Resort is temporarily closing Shanghai Disneyland, Disneytown.

‘We will continue to carefully monitor the situation and… announce the reopening date upon confirmation.’

A section of the Great Wall known as the Badaling section – one of the most visited parts – is closed to tourists, Al Jazeera reports.

The following measures have been taken to control the disease’s spread in and around China:

• Beijing’s Forbidden Palace, which hosts the Palace Museum, will be closed to visitors from tomorrow, Saturday
• The Beijing National Stadium, also known as the Bird’s Nest, is closed
• A four-day carnival planned in Hong Kong, from January 25 to 28, was cancelled by the state tourism board
• Hong Kong’s Lunar New Year World Cup football tournament was called off
• All public Lunar New Year events in Macau, home to more than half-a-million people, have been cancelled
• Transport restrictions are reported to be in place in Wuhan, Huanggang, Ezhou, Zhijiang, Dangyang, Qianjiang, Chibi, Xiantao, Lichuan, Jingmen, Xianning, Yichang and Enshi

Businesses around China – the world’s biggest nation and home to more than one billion people, a seventh of the world’s population – are already having to take drastic measures.

Seven movies which were set to premiere over this weekend have cancelled their screenings and 70,000 cinemas across the country have closed their doors, The Telegraph reports.

McDonald’s is believed to have ordered the closure of branches in five cities in the Hubei province, and clothing store Uni Qlo has shut down 17 stores in Wuhan city, where the outbreak began and is most dangerous.

Wuhan has now been in lockdown for two days, with residents told not to leave and forced to wear face masks. There is no public transport, major roads have been closed and the airport has been shut down.

Reports from the city described it as a ‘ghost town’ as streets were deserted at a time when millions would normally be preparing to celebrate.

And at least nine other areas have started to put similar measures in place.

Huanggang, close to Wuhan, is home to more than seven million people and yesterday announced it would shut down its public transport.

Movement of people is also reportedly being restricted in Ezhou, Zhijiang, Dangyang, Qianjiang, Chibi, Xiantao, Lichuan, Jingmen, Xianning, Yichang, Huangshi and Enshi, The Telegraph reports.

All these places are in the Hubei province, which is the epicenter of the outbreak – Wuhan is the capital. Hubei has a total population of almost 60million people – slightly more than England.

Hubei has by far recorded the most cases – 549 out of the total, according to China Daily – and all but one of the 26 people who have died died in that province.

To try and cope with the outpouring of patients, authorities at ground zero – Wuhan city – have ordered a brand new hospital to be constructed over the next week, which is supposed to be a public holiday.

And governments and airports around the world are screening passengers arriving from China.

Countries including the US, Malaysia and Singapore have introduced rigorous checks, with all passengers coming in from Wuhan are having their temperature taken, regardless of whether they have any symptoms.

International flights out of Wuhan have all been cancelled because of the virus’s spread, which has seen cases pop up in 11 countries/territories, most of which are in East Asia.

In the US, where two cases have been confirmed, authorities in Washington state are monitoring at least 43 people who they say had close contact with a patient from near Seattle. The second case was diagnosed in a woman in Chicago, Illinois.

Sixty-three suspected cases have appeared in 22 states and patients are in process of being tested.

There are reportedly 10 people in California who are being held in isolation while doctors wait for test results. A male Texas A&M University student who had travelled to Wuhan recently is also being tested, as well as a student at Tennessee Tech.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said it would direct all flights from Wuhan to five airports and screen passengers at LAX in Los Angeles, JFK in New York, San Francisco International Airport, Chicago O’Hare International Airport and Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta. It is not clear, however, if this has been put in place yet, Time reported.

President Donald Trump insisted earlier this week that the country wasn’t concerned about the outbreak and added: ‘We have it totally under control. We do have a plan, and we think it’s going to be handled very well.’

In the UK, health bosses have urged hundreds of recent arrivals from Wuhan to call the NHS’s 111 helpline if they feel ill and 14 patients have already been tested for the SARS-like infection – all have been negative so far.

Doctors have also been told to ask anyone with flu-like symptoms if they have been to China – and then lock them in a room if they are suspected to be infected with the coronavirus.

More than 2,000 people have flown into Britain from Wuhan, the Chinese city on lockdown, since cases first emerged last month, it is feared.

Scottish officials yesterday confirmed they were testing five cases in Edinburgh and Glasgow ‘as a precaution’.

Another man was being tested in isolation at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, and there was a suspected case in Hillingdon, west London. Public Health England has still not revealed where the other cases are.

Anyone with the symptoms, who has travelled to the UK via Wuhan, will be tested for the virus and if cases are confirmed put in isolation at one of four UK super-hospitals: two in London, one in Liverpool and one in Newcastle.

The Russian government has stopped flights to and from Wuhan as a precautionary measure.

Two people in Russia, which borders China in the east, had to be tested for the coronavirus in St Petersburg, but there have been no confirmed cases there yet.

Everything we know we know so far about the deadly coronavirus in China: But how worried should we be?

The deadly coronavirus ravaging Asia is far more contagious than previously thought and someone who is infected can spread it with just a simple cough or a sneeze.

It has so far killed 26 people and infected more than 830 in at least 10 countries/territories within three weeks.

But experts predict the true number of people with the disease could be over 10,000 as they warn it may kill as many as two in 100 cases.  Here’s what we know so far:

What is the Wuhan coronavirus?

A coronavirus is a type of virus which can cause illness in animals and people. It is an RNA virus (RNA is a type of genetic material called ribonucleic acid), which means it breaks into cells inside the host of the virus and uses them to reproduce itself.

This coronavirus from Wuhan is one which has never been seen before this outbreak. It is currently named 2019-nCoV, and does not have a more detailed name because so little is known about it.

Dr Helena Maier, from the Pirbright Institute, said: ‘Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that infect a wide range of different species including humans, cattle, pigs, chickens, dogs, cats and wild animals.

‘Until this new coronavirus was identified, there were only six different coronaviruses known to infect humans. Four of these cause a mild common cold-type illness, but since 2002 there has been the emergence of two new coronaviruses that can infect humans and result in more severe disease (Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) coronaviruses).

‘Coronaviruses are known to be able to occasionally jump from one species to another and that is what happened in the case of SARS, MERS and the new coronavirus. The animal origin of the new coronavirus is not yet known.’

The first human cases were publicly reported from the Chinese city of Wuhan, where approximately 11 million people live, three weeks ago after medics first started seeing cases in December.