Wuhan (China) (AFP)

China is taking great measures against the virus which has started to spread in the rest of the world, de facto in quarantine as of Thursday the metropolis of Wuhan in the heart of the epidemic as well as a neighboring city.

Since 10:00 local time (2:00 GMT), no more trains or planes should in principle leave Wuhan, 11 million inhabitants, in the center of China. The tolls at the city's motorway exits are closed.

This metropolis on the banks of the Yangtze is at the heart of the epidemic which since December has infected more than 570 people and left 17 dead, according to a last report on Wednesday evening. All those who died died in Wuhan or its region.

"The residents must not leave Wuhan without specific reason," said the headquarters responsible for fighting the epidemic at the municipal level.

The neighboring city of Huanggang, 70 km to the east, with a population of 7.5 million, is subject to similar measures. Train traffic was to be stopped there until further notice from the end of the day.

Nearby Ezhou (1.1 million inhabitants) has already closed its station.

In Wuhan (pronounced "Wou-ranne", note), the inhabitants could not plan a possible departure, the decision having been announced during the night.

- Taxis triple prices -

It was still possible to reach the city by train or plane, even if many flights were canceled.

But trains like planes bound for Wuhan were almost empty, a strange sight on the eve of the New Year's holiday when they are usually taken by storm.

In central Wuhan, public transportation was stopped and the New Years festivities were canceled.

Taxis have tripled their prices. "It is very dangerous to go out at the moment but we need money," said a driver at AFP.

The town hall also imposed the wearing of a respiratory mask, which most of the inhabitants had in any case started to put on since the beginning of the week.

The fight began when a Chinese scientist admitted that the virus could be transmitted from human to human and not just from animal to human.

President Xi Jinping gave the signal for mobilization on Monday by calling for a "resolute" check on the epidemic, which until then had not made the headlines.

In Beijing as in Shanghai, the mask was used in public places, like the subway.

- "Very very strong" measures -

In Geneva, the director of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, welcomed on Wednesday the "very, very strong" measures taken by China, believing that they would "reduce" the risks of spread outside of its borders.

They intervened when the WHO assembled its emergency committee to decide whether the new virus constitutes a "public health emergency of international concern".

The experts having failed to agree on the question, the WHO was to continue the meeting on Thursday from 11:00 GMT.

WHO has so far used the term international emergency only for rare cases of epidemics requiring a vigorous global response, including H1N1 swine flu in 2009, Zika virus in 2016 and Ebola fever, which has ravaged part of West Africa from 2014 to 2016 and the DRC since 2018.

In Washington, a spokesman for the State Department noted "encouraging signs that the Chinese government has understood the gravity of the problem".

The virus, of the same family as SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), has spread to several countries in Asia and even the United States where a few cases have been recorded.

Body temperature controls have become widespread at several airports in Asia, the Pacific Rim as well as in the United Kingdom, Nigeria and Italy.

- Illegal trade -

The virus was spotted in December at a wholesale seafood market in Wuhan. Its exact origin is not yet known, but its incubation period is said to be around 14 days.

Illegal wildlife sales were taking place in the market, the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledged, without being able to say for sure whether game was the cause of the epidemic.

The strain is a new type of coronavirus, a family with a large number of viruses. They can cause mild illnesses in humans (like a cold) but also other more serious ones like Sras.

The WHO had at the time of SARS, in 2002-2003, strongly criticized Beijing for having delayed raising the alarm and trying to conceal the extent of the epidemic.

SARS had killed 774 people worldwide, including 648 in China including Hong Kong.

© 2020 AFP