The National Health Commission said on Sunday the total number of infections in mainland China had risen to 14,380, with 304 fatalities.

Wenzhou had 265 confirmed cases as of Sunday, which the city’s vice-mayor Tang Xiaoshu attributed to the fact that about 180,000 of its residents worked or studied in Wuhan, and may have brought the virus back with them when they returned for the Lunar New Year holiday.

The authorities had identified 33,000 people who fell into that category, of which 18,800 arrived home within five days of Wuhan being put on lockdown on January 23, Tang said.

“The virus case curve is in accordance with the peak time of people coming back,” she said.

Wenzhou has designated nine hospitals to treat coronavirus patients, while 33 others have fever clinics for screening patients.

According to a report by Zhejiang Daily, six people in Wenzhou became infected after working or visiting Yintai Shopping Mall, which was shut down last week in response to the outbreak. Meanwhile, three people who returned to Yueqing – a city administered by Wenzhou – from Hubei had been placed in administrative detention for visiting public venues when they had been told to remain in isolation at home so they could be observed, the report said.

As part of tighter controls on residents’ movements, 46 of the 55 expressways serving Wenzhou had been closed to traffic, the local government said on WeChat, China’s most popular messaging app.

Lin Ying, who lives in the city, said most bus services had also been suspended, while on the major roads still open, inspectors were taking the temperatures of motorists and their passengers, and checking their identity cards.

She said also that the residential community where her cousin lived was locked down last week after several suspected cases were identified but was given the all-clear a few days later.

At other apartment compounds, residents were being channelled through single exit-entry points and were having their body temperatures recorded, she said.

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Lin said she had not seen any shortages of food products, so people were not panicking.

Meanwhile, she said she had been helping to source important medical supplies by asking Wenzhou natives living abroad to buy masks and other gears and send them to the city’s hospitals.

“I have talked with doctors who are on the front line … and they are running short of protective materials,” she said.

“But some of the [donated] goods have been trapped at customs here, so my friends and I are trying to get them out.”

Ye Minjie, a doctor at Wenzhou Kangning Hospital, said supplies of masks, caps and protective gowns were limited.

“We are being thrifty and trying to maximise their use,” he said. “It’s because we don’t know when this situation will end.”

For one man in Wenzhou, not knowing when the restrictions on people’s movements and business operations will end is becoming a serious pain – in the face.

According to his dentist, Lin Jiaqiang, the man was undergoing a procedure to rectify a dental problem that would normally require two visits on consecutive days.

“[But ] after the first operation, my clinic was shut down so we couldn’t continue with the second part,” Lin said.

“So since then he has had terrible toothache and only painkillers to help him.”