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China's unprecedented quarantine of 11 million people in Wuhan is 2 weeks old. Here's what it is like in the isolated city.

The 11 million residents of Wuhan, China, have been under lockdown for two weeks thanks to the deadly coronavirus.

Wuhan Coronavirus
  • The residents are worried about food running out, getting the virus from other people in the city, and how to stay entertained as they largely choose to stay in their homes.
  • The city is shipping in food and building hospitals in just days, while residents are making memes as they wait for things to return to normal.
  • This is what life in the city is like under quarantine, where China is enforcing increasingly stricter measures.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories .

The Chinese city of Wuhan has been under a lockdown for two weeks after it was identified as the epicenter of a deadly coronavirus that has killed more than 630 people around the world.

Photos show how the typically bustling city of 11 million people appears to be a ghost town, and people are shouting support from their balconies and running in their apartments as they wait for word on when the spread of the virus might slow, or their quarantine be lifted.

People are allowed outside, but many are choosing to stay indoors. Those who go outside are faced with screenings and everything being disinfected.

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A teenager with cerebral palsy has died after his dad was quarantined, while thousands of pets are at risk of starvation in empty homes.

China is bringing in new and stricter measures, and is now ordering all the city's residents to report their temperatures every day , while public venues have been transformed into makeshift medical centers and the city has built new hospitals in just days.

Here's what the city is like:

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The Paper/Twitter

China cut off transport links inside and outside the city to try and stop the virus, and ordered places like cinemas and cafes to close.

The World Health Organization called cutting off a city as large as Wuhan "unprecedented in public health history," and said it isn't sure if the strategy will work.

China later extended the measures to other cities, covering around 60 million people, creating what is thought to be the largest quarantine in human history.

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Authorities urged people not to stockpile as some stores ran out of meat, vegetables and instant noodles.

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Twitter/Chinese Embassy in Uganda

Some are unsure if they will be paid, but said they volunteered to help the city anyway.

Driver Ma Chenglong said he volunteered straight away.

"When the country is in trouble, we common people have a duty," The New York Times reported .

Here's what a line of trucks looked like in January:

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Drone footage of the city this month shows eerie stillness across the city.

Planet Labs Inc / Handout / Reuters

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The photos, taken on the city's eighth day of quarantine , show the city looking like a ghost town.

Wuhan

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The footage, shared on Reddit, shows dozens of residents shouting their support to the city.

You can watch it here:

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Source: CNN .

Twitter/Manya Koetse/Weibo/What's on Weibo

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Some people are poking fun at the lack of medical masks used to prevent the spread of the illness by doing things like wearing inflatable costumes outside.

Here's an example:

The South China Morning Post reported that Yan Cheng was found dead on January 29.

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His father had appealed for help on social media, writing: "I have two disabled sons. My older son Yan Cheng has cerebral palsy. He cannot move his body, he cannot speak or look after himself. He has already been at home by himself for six days, with nobody to bathe him or change his clothes and nothing to eat or drink."

China Daily via REUTERS

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China's Vice Premier Sun Chunlan visited Wuhan on Thursday , where she said that anyone who needed treatment should, if needed, be rounded up and forced into a quarantine, describing the country as being under "wartime conditions."

STR/AFP/Getty Images

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Source: Reuters

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Medics around the world are holding clinical trials to test if HIV medication could work as a treatment.

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China is using trucks to spray citie s , including Wuhan.

Feature China/Barcroft Media via Getty Images

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Feature China/Barcroft Media via Getty Images

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Source: Reuters

Feature China/Barcroft Media via Getty Images

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A photo tweeted by New York Times journalist Amy Qin shows patients sitting on the pavement outside a Wuhan hospital, getting IV drips outside or in their cars.

They reportedly said they didn't want to go inside the hospital because there were "too many sick people."

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STR/AFP via Getty Images

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