China has taken drastic measures in an attempt to control the coronavirus outbreak, and no city is under more intense lockdown than Wuhan – where the virus originated. The Chinese government has closed all transport links in the city which homes 11 million people, by shutting down its public transport system, train stations, and airport, on January 23.
Drone footage taken from the US’s ABC News shows the extent of the lockdown with the streets virtually empty.
Just a few people can be seen roaming around the city, which is usually a transport hub.
The quarantine is the biggest in human history, and has led to some criticism from officials.
Gauden Galea, World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) China representative, told Reuters: “The lockdown of 11 million people is unprecedented in public health history, so it is certainly not a recommendation the WHO has made.”
Professor David Heymann, the former executive director of communicable diseases at the WHO, “China is doing a great experiment to see if they can have an impact on the international spread and national spread by trying to quarantine.”
In total, 45 million people in China are under quarantine, as the world’s most populous country putting 16 different cities on lockdown.
More and more people are beginning to recover from the coronavirus, with almost 1,000 people returning to health worldwide.
However, almost 500 people have died from the disease.
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Perhaps the most surprising find however is that the virus seems to infect more males than females.
The research points out that 68 percent of people infected by the virus were males, with the researchers struggling to understand why.
However, they said: “The reduced susceptibility of females to viral infections could be attributed to the protection from X chromosome and sex hormones, which play an important role in innate and adaptive immunity.”
This does not mean younger people cannot become infected, with the research stating that 10 percent of confirmed cases came from people under the age of 39.
Coronavirus also seemed to favour those with pre-existing medical conditions, with the study listing: “Chronic diseases, including cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, endocrine system disease, digestive system disease, respiratory system disease, malignant tumour, and nervous system disease.”
In conclusion, the authors of the research said: “Our results suggest that 2019-nCoV is more likely to infect older adult males with chronic comorbidities as a result of the weaker immune functions of these patients.”