A Jan 21, 2020 photo of travellers passing through a health screening checkpoint at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport in Wuhan in southern China's Hubei province. For weeks after the first reports of a mysterious new virus in Wuhan, people poured out of the central Chinese city, cramming onto buses, trains and airplanes as the first wave of China's great Lunar New Year migration broke across the nation. Some carried with them a new virus that has claimed over 560 lives and sickened more than 28,000 people. — AP
SHANGHAI: For weeks after the first reports of a mysterious new virus in Wuhan, millions of people poured out of the central Chinese city, cramming onto buses, trains and planes as the first wave of China’s great Lunar New Year migration broke across the nation. Some carried with them the new virus that has since claimed over 800 lives and sickened more than 37,000 people.
Officials finally began to seal the borders on Jan 23. But it was too late. Speaking to reporters a few days after the city was put under quarantine, the mayor estimated that 5 million people had already left.
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