The fences, erected to help guard against the spread of infection by limiting people’s movements, have made negotiating Wuhan’s still-quiet streets something of a sport.

They stand at about six feet (1.8 meters), too high to scale, but some have grabbed the opportunity when nobody is looking to brazenly fashion a way through.

On the city’s Shanghai Road, a man squeezes into a gap between one barrier and the wall of a building, then simply ducks under some shared bikes wedged there to stop people doing just that.