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On Jan. 23, the Chinese government, when there were 830 cases and about two dozen deaths, banned all travel to, from and in the city of 11 million.

The number of cases in China has since climbed to 6,000 and at least 107 deaths. The disease has been confirmed in a handful of other Asian countries and beyond, including possibly Canada.

Yuan said the shutdown of buses, trains, ferries, flights and private vehicles was announced at 2 a.m. and took effect eight hours later. The couple’s Feb. 8 plane tickets were cancelled and the money refunded, and then the gravity of the quarantine sank in.

“The most panicking thing is the Chinese government at first just banned the trains and the next thing is they ban all travel, so you don’t really know what’s next,” he said.

“There is pretty much nothing on the street,” he said, adding they rarely leave the house of his wife’s family. “We just watch TV. I don’t go out. I can leave but you can just walk, there are no public buses, no taxis, no private cars.”

The family has about a week’s worth of food and Yuan said “you can probably still get some food in stores.”

Photo by Eve Xiao / PNG

Yuan said he’s anxious to get home because his mother is on her own and “she worries too much” about him, her only child, and he’s worried he may lose his job if he doesn’t return to work in early February. He’s got a mortgage to pay.

His mother, Jessie Yuan, said in Vancouver that she is concerned about her son and daughter-in-law. “They feel trapped. They just stay at home and they’re scared.”