Experts warn it’s ‘too late’ to stop coronavirus as FIVE MILLION people left ‘zombieland’ Wuhan before lockdown

EXPERTS fear it is too late to stop the deadly spread of coronavirus as FIVE MILLION people left the outbreak epicentre before it was even put on lockdown. Millions continued to pour out of Wuhan – now dubbed zombieland – long after the first reports about a deadly new virus broke. Many crammed onto buses, […]

EXPERTS fear it is too late to stop the deadly spread of coronavirus as FIVE MILLION people left the outbreak epicentre before it was even put on lockdown.

Millions continued to pour out of Wuhan – now dubbed zombieland – long after the first reports about a deadly new virus broke.

AP:Associated Press

An official uses an infrared thermometer on a traveller at an airport in Wuhan before the lockdown[/caption]

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Travellers wearing protective masks walk outside a railway station in Hubei province[/caption]

Many crammed onto buses, trains and planes as the first wave of China’s great Lunar New Year migration broke across the nation.

Some unknowingly carried with them a killer virus which has since claimed more than 800 lives and struck down more than 37,000 people.

Analysis by the Associated Press reveals in the two weeks before Wuhan’s eventual lockdown, nearly 70 per cent of the five million that left stayed within Hubei province.

Most of the others  headed to the neighbouring provinces of Henan, Hunan, Anhui and Jiangxi.

However, some left China all together spreading the possible threat of infection across the globe.

AFP or licensors

A man wearing a face mask cycles past the body of a man who collapsed and died in Wuhan[/caption]

AFP or licensors

A driver is checked for the virus at a police road block in Wuhan[/caption]

The top 10 global destinations for travellers were Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, the United States, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam and Australia.

Not surprisingly, the newly-revealed travel patterns track with the early spread of the killer virus.

“It’s definitely too late,” said Jin Dong-Yan, a molecular virologist at Hong Kong University’s School of Biomedical Sciences.

“Five million out. That’s a big challenge. Many of them may not come back to Wuhan but hang around somewhere else.

“To control this outbreak, we have to deal with this. On one hand, we need to identify them. On the other hand, we need to address the issue of stigma and discrimination.”

It’s now key to understand the exact movements out of Wuhan before the lockdown, said Lai Shengjie who is a WorldPop researcher who used to work at China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Maybe they hadn’t developed symptoms but could transmit the virus,” he said.

“We need to look at destinations across China and the world and focus on the main destinations and try to prepare for disease control and prevention.”

Since being put into lockdown, Wuhan as been dubbed “zombieland” by desperate locals.

Harrowing pictures on social media showed people collapsed on the street and in hospital waiting rooms amid the epidemic.

Another horrifying picture showed a man reportedly dead on the ground with blood pouring from his head.

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A lone medic walks through the new deserted streets of the crisis-hit city[/caption]