China said it was halting flights and trains from Thursday out of Wuhan, the city of 11 million people at the centre of a deadly SARS-like virus outbreak, as the UN extended emergency talks on the disease.

Wuhan's special command centre against the virus also said that residents should not leave without a special reason and that public transport inside the city would also be suspended.

The measures come into effect from 0200 GMT, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

The move is meant to "resolutely contain the momentum of the epidemic spreading," the centre was quoted as saying.

Hundreds of people have been infected with the virus in China and 17 have died since the first case was detected in Wuhan on December 31 and authorities have already urged visitors to steer clear of the city.

The coronavirus has caused alarm because of its similarity to SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which killed nearly 650 people across mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-2003.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus meanwhile said he was postponing a decision on whether or not to declare a global health emergency -- a rare instrument used only for the worst outbreaks -- saying he needed "more information".

"I have decided to ask the emergency committee to meet again tomorrow to continue their discussion," he said, referring to a group of international experts who met for several hours at the WHO in Geneva on Wednesday.

Asked about the transport shutdown, he added: "By having a strong action not only will they control the outbreak in their country but they will also minimise the chances of this outbreak spreading internationally."

The emergency committee will meet again from 1100 GMT after its chair Didier Houssin said the experts were split over declaring a public health emergency.

- Airport screening -

With hundreds of millions of people travelling across China this week for the Lunar New Year holiday, the National Health Commission also announced measures to contain the disease -- including sterilisation and ventilation at airports and bus stations, as well as inside planes and trains.

The illness is mainly transmitted via the respiratory tract and more than 500 cases have now been reported, with the majority in Wuhan, capital of central Hubei province.

The virus has also been detected in Japan, Macau, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States.

The Chinese government has classified the outbreak in the same category as the SARS epidemic, meaning compulsory isolation for those diagnosed with the illness and the potential to implement quarantine measures.

But they still have not been able to confirm the exact source of the virus.

Michael Ryan, head of the WHO's health emergencies programme, said: "There are many unknowns to address in this event including clinical severity and the true extent and nature of disease transmission".

Countries have intensified efforts to stop the spread of the pathogen -- known by its technical name 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV).

Passengers are facing screening measures at five US airports and a host of transport hubs across Asia.

European airports from London to Moscow have also stepped up checks and Nigeria, which has many citizens working in China, said it would start checks at entry points.

- China 'commendable' -

The WHO has confirmed that the virus can be passed between people, at least those in close contact.

However, animals are suspected to be the primary source of the outbreak.

A Wuhan market is believed to be the epicentre of the outbreak.

A price list circulating online in China for a business there lists a menagerie of animals or animal-based products including live foxes, crocodiles, wolf puppies and rats. It also offered civets, the animal linked to SARS.

"We already know that the disease originated from a market which conducted illegal transaction of wild animals," said Gao Fu, director of the Chinese centre for disease control and prevention.

He said it was clear "this virus is adapting and mutating".

WHO chief Tedros said there was "stability" for the moment.

"We don't see any significant variation but at the same time we also believe that we have to be cautious," he said.

Tedros also praised China's openness about the outbreak as "commendable".

But a senior State Department official said Washington was "still concerned as far as transparency in the Chinese government" goes.

- Masks selling out -

Health authorities are urging people to wash their hands regularly, avoid crowded places, get plenty of fresh air and wear a mask if they have a cough.

Anyone with a cough or fever was urged to go to hospital.

In Wuhan, city authorities made it mandatory to wear a mask in public places on Wednesday, according to state-run People's Daily.

In response to skyrocketing demand for masks -- which were starting to sell out at pharmacies and on some popular websites -- China's industry and information technology ministry said it would "spare no effort in increasing supply", state media reported.

In Wuhan, the local government has cancelled major public activities, including Women's Olympics football qualifiers scheduled for February 3-9 which have been moved to the eastern city of Nanjing.

What we know so far about the new China virus
Beijing (AFP) Jan 22, 2020 - A new SARS-like virus has killed 17 people in China, infected hundreds and reached as far as the United States, with fears mounting about its spread as hundreds of millions travel for Lunar New Year celebrations, which start Friday.

Many countries have stepped up screening of passengers from Wuhan, the Chinese city identified as the epicentre, which is home to 11 million people.

Here's what we know so far about the virus:

- It's entirely new -

The pathogen appears to be a never-before-seen strain of coronavirus -- a large family of viruses that can cause diseases ranging from the common cold to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which killed 349 people in mainland China and another 299 in Hong Kong between 2002 and 2003.

Arnaud Fontanet, head of the department of epidemiology at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, told AFP the current virus strain was 80 percent genetically identical to SARS.

China has already shared the genome sequencing of this novel coronavirus with the international scientific community.

It has been named "2019-nCoV".

- It's being passed between humans -

The WHO said Monday it believed an animal source was the "primary source" of the outbreak, and Wuhan authorities identified a seafood market as the centre of the epidemic.

But China has since confirmed that there was evidence the virus is now passing from person to person, without any contact with the now-closed market.

More than 500 cases of the virus have now been reported, with most in Wuhan, according to officials. Li Bin of China's National Health Commission on Wednesday said 1,394 people were still under medical observation.

Nathalie MacDermott of King's College London said it seems likely that the virus is spread through droplets in the air from sneezing or coughing.

Doctors at the University of Hong Kong published an initial paper on Tuesday modelling the spread of the virus which estimated that there have been about 1,343 cases in Wuhan -- similar to a projection of 1,700 last week by scientists at Imperial College, London.

Both are much higher than official figures.

- It is milder than SARS -

Compared with SARS, the symptoms appear to be less aggressive, and experts say the death toll is still relatively low.

However Antoine Flahault, director of the Institute of Global Health at the University of Geneva, told AFP that the fact that the virus seems milder in the majority of people is "paradoxically more worrying" as it allows people to travel further before their symptoms are detected.

The outbreak comes as China prepares for the Lunar New Year holiday, with hundreds of millions travelling across the country to see family.

- International public health emergency? -

The WHO on Wednesday postponed its decision on whether to declare a global public health emergency, extending talks by a day.

Cases have so far been confirmed in Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Macau and the United States.

The WHO has only used the rare label a handful of times, including during the H1N1 -- or swine flu -- pandemic of 2009 and the Ebola epidemic that devastated parts of West Africa from 2014 to 2016.

The Chinese government announced Tuesday it was classifying the outbreak in the same category as SARS, meaning compulsory isolation for those diagnosed with the disease and the potential to implement quarantine measures on travel.

- Global precautions -

As the number of confirmed deaths and infections has risen, so has concern worldwide about the disease spreading to other countries.

Authorities halted flights and trains from Thursday at 10:00 am out of Wuhan and told residents they should not leave without a special reason.

In Thailand, officials have introduced mandatory thermal scans of passengers arriving at airports in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Phuket and Krabi from high-risk areas in China.

In Hong Kong, authorities have said they are on high alert, carrying out scans at the city's airport -- one of the world's busiest -- and at other international land and sea crossing points.

The United States had also ordered the screening of passengers arriving on direct or connecting flights from Wuhan, including at airports in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Taiwan has issued travel advisories, and went to its second-highest alert level for those travelling to or from Wuhan. Vietnam also ordered more border checks on its frontier with China.

In Europe, Britain and Italy introduced enhanced monitoring of flights from Wuhan, while Romania and Russia are also strengthening checks.

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S. Korea confirms first case of SARS-like virus from China
Seoul (AFP) Jan 20, 2020
South Korea on Monday confirmed its first case of the SARS-like virus that is spreading in China, as concerns mount about a wider outbreak. A 35-year-old Chinese woman who flew in from Wuhan, the apparent epicentre of the outbreak, was confirmed to have the new coronavirus strain, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said. She went to hospital in Wuhan on Saturday with symptoms of a cold and was prescribed medication before flying to Incheon airport on Sunday, where she wa ... read more