Planes and trains out of the city — the epicenter of a new SARS-like virus — were cancelled, with public transport suspended and residents ordered not to leave in a bid to control the spread of the disease.

Streets decorated for Chinese New Year festivities in the city of 11 million were empty, with the few who ventured outside wearing masks as ordered by authorities.

“I try my best to stay home and only come out to buy the necessary goods when needed,” a man surnamed Fu told AFP from a small supermarket, which already had a few empty shelves.

The neighboring city of Huanggang was also placed on lockdown from Thursday night.

Travel closures were also imposed on roads, rail or public transport in three other nearby cities.

But near-empty trains and planes still headed into Wuhan, with hardy passengers donning surgical masks and gloves to brave the journey.

The lockdown comes on the eve of the Lunar New Year holiday, when hundreds of millions of Chinese take to planes, trains and roads to visit relatives in what is the world’s biggest annual movement of people.

The search term “Wuhan is sealed off” had been read over 1.2 billion times on China’s Twitter-like Weibo platform by Thursday evening with some 376,000 discussion posts.