Pharmacies in Wuhan are restricting customers to buying one mask at a time amid high demand and worries over an outbreak of a new coronavirus. (Photo: AP)

It was a tough decision for He Qi, a Wuhan native, employed at an internet company in Beijing, to cancel her Spring Festival reunion dinner plans with her family.

Behind her canceled travel plan is the outbreak of a new strain of coronavirus – 2019-nCoV – in the city of 11 million people, spreading at an alarming rate. 

The virus has infected more than 450 people, claiming nine lives in the country since the first case was reported on December 31. 

The outbreak is happening at a time when millions in the country are traveling back home and overseas for the Spring Festival, making it the biggest annual migration in the world.

Such large scale mobility has added wings to the new virus to transcend national and international borders.    

But travelers like He are cautious. "My parents advised me not to go over. But I will wait and see over the Lunar New Year, depending on how the situation develops, I might still go back." 

As He hopes that the outbreak might be controlled, the infection has spread to other cities in China, including Beijing and Shanghai. Cases have also been reported from Thailand, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the US, leading to a global health scare. 

Urbanization, globalization and a festive season exacerbate virus risk

A major transport hub, Wuhan has more than 41 international and regional air routes, directly linking major Asian, European and US cities. 

Such high mobility makes it easier for the new virus to spread to new areas. In the case of the new strain of coronavirus, Wuhan health authorities said human-to-human transmission is making it difficult to contain the outbreak.

Urbanization has increased the population density and connectivity of people, which increases the speed at which new infections are spread, said a 2017 research published in the journal Ambio.

Globalization – the closer integration of the world economy – has facilitated pathogen spread among countries through the growth of trade and travel, it added.  

The current outbreak brings back eerie reminders of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic that prompted a major overhaul in the public health system in the country. 

In order to prevent and control such scenarios, a web-based real-time disease surveillance system was built into a network of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), covering the national level, provincial level, prefectural level and county level outbreaks.

"China's disease surveillance system enables 98 percent of counties and higher-level hospitals and 88 percent of township hospitals to have a direct connection to the CDC disease reporting system," according to a research paper published in 2015. 

But it has limitations in detecting emerging diseases, researchers added. Globally, the challenge of containing a new virus has been a cyclical process. 

Learning from previous outbreaks

Nearly a decade after China dealt with SARS, an outbreak of Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2012 in Saudi Arabia again reminded the world about the challenges of controlling the emerging virus. 

Transmitted between animal reservoirs such as camels and their human handlers infected locals, viruses traveled to Europe, US, and Southeast Asia. Zika, in 2015 and the ongoing Ebola crisis are testing the world's capability to deal with new infections. 

Today, Wuhan is facing a similar crisis. Since January 14, 2020, authorities have installed 35 infrared at airports, railway stations, long-distance bus stations, and ferry terminals, the WHO said. 

In the last fortnight, 18,383 passengers and aircrew members have been screened for coronavirus. 

Wuhan has also canceled Spring Festival celebrations, and traffic police will be on the prowl for private vehicles carrying live poultry or wild animal after the virus was linked to seafood and live animal market.

Zhou Di, a postdoctoral student at Wuhan University with a five-month-old toddler, has also canceled her plan to visit her home at Honghu in Wuhan around a two-hour drive from her university.  

"The source of the coronavirus, the Hunan Seafood Market, is barely 12 kilometers from my parents' home, which scares me," she said.