Wuhan quarantine: shutting down a city five times the size of London
- The city of 11 million people along the Yangtze River has long been a major transport hub, compounding the challenge of stopping the spread of the coronavirus
- The capital of Hubei province is also known as an academic powerhouse and is home to China’s first laboratory dedicated to highly contagious deadly diseases
Beijing’s decision to quarantine Wuhan in central China to try to contain a deadly disease outbreak presents unprecedented challenges as it is dealing with a city about five times the size of London.
Public transport in and out of Wuhan was effectively shut down at 10am on Thursday and residents were told to remain in the city, unless they could provide “special reasons” for leaving.
The central government imposed the lockdown to stop the spread of a newly identified coronavirus that has killed 17 people in the area, infected hundreds more across the country and is spreading overseas.
The virus has put Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, under the international spotlight and prompted the World Health Organisation in Geneva to call emergency meetings to assess the global threat from the outbreak.
Wuhan is a hub for several major high-speed railway lines that link it to China’s major cities; Beijing is four hours away by train, while it takes 4½ hours to reach Hong Kong, and Shanghai is almost six hours away. Around 700,000 people use those trains during peak travel seasons, such as the Lunar New Year holiday, which starts this week.
