Wuhan goes on lockdown following coronavirus outbreak, but WHO isn't ready to declare global emergency

Hankou Railway Station.
(Image credit: Xiaolu Chu/Getty Images)

Wuhan, China, is on lockdown following the outbreak of a coronavirus in the city.

The Chinese government decided Wednesday that it was necessary to quarantine the city, which is home to more than 11 million, by shutting down intra-city public transportation. Outbound flights and trains will also be canceled for the time being as efforts to learn more about the virus and how it spreads continue.

The illness is believed to have started in Wuhan and has spread to several other countries, including a reported case in the United States. Overall, there have been more than 500 confirmed cases and 17 deaths.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Despite the preventative measures being taken in Wuhan, the World Health Organization said Wednesday that it wasn't ready to declare the outbreak a global emergency. That could very well still happen — and soon — but at the moment things apparently aren't clear enough for the United Nations agency to issue that designation. Tim O'Donnell

See more

Continue reading for free

We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.

Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.

Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.