Panic turns mainland cities into ghost towns

People wearing face masks walk down a deserted street in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei Province

This Spring Festival holiday, ghost towns have become the norm across the entire mainland, even in the most populous of provincial capitals.
Usually, during the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, Chinese residents travel from major cities back to their hometown. This year, amid the outbreak of the 2019-nCoV, Chinese citizens have been turning their own hometowns into ghost towns, while also deserting the streets of the larger cities in which they reside.
As Hubei province announced the shutdown of the entire province’s public transportation, leaving streets empty across all Hubei cities, other mainland cities also implemented measures which consequently created more ghost cities.
Similar to the Macau local government, which requested those who had returned from mainland China to isolate themselves for 14 days, mainland cities are also implementing that measure for mainland residents who have been in other cities and provinces, regardless of the place.
Small communities or residential buildings in mainland China have been also implementing “unique” measures, such as prohibiting “non-locals” from entering their villages, their communities and their buildings. Such measures do not exclude higher ranked politicians.
On January 30, Lou Qinjian, the Communist party secretary of the entire Jiangsu province, was banned entry to a small village in Nanjing, the capital city of Jiangsu.
In a video posted on Weibo, a party “comrade” is seen blocking Lou’s way at the entrance of the village to carry out an inspection, and saying “non-locals are not allowed.” However, the video is suspected of having been staged as a means to encourage Chinese residents to prevent non-locals from entering.
According to posts on Weibo and information received by the Times, mainland residential communities are measuring the temperature of all residents and have already put out slogans to warn residents against gathering and instead to stay at home.
In Huanggang, Hubei’s second most populous city, the local government only allows each household to send out one member every two days to buy food and supplies. Huanggang recently became the second city after Wuhan to be put on lockdown.
“My community’s regulation only allows one person to go out to buy home essentials and the regulation suggests asking those who come in carrying luggage to write down their travel information,” wrote one social media user claiming to be from the city.
These measures together with others have made mainland residents panic and stay home, turning mainland cities ghost towns.