United efforts help nationwide battle

Norbu Dradul, founder and director of Black Tent Film Studio in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, said he is proud of those working to prevent disease at such a challenging time.

"Fun, creativity and being close to everyday life are the key points made in the videos we produce, which have caught the attention of local people and have been well received," he added.

In Qianjiang, Hubei, which has a population of 1 million and lies 130 kilometers west of Wuhan, the outbreak's epicenter and provincial capital, efforts to contain the virus appear to have worked well.

As of Wednesday, 197 confirmed cases had been reported in Qianjiang, the second-lowest total in the province. Shennongjia, a forestry area, has the lowest number of cases in Hubei, with 11 patients confirmed with the disease among a population of 80,000.

Wu Zuyun, the Party chief of Qianjiang, who has led the city's fight against the virus since last month, attributed the successful efforts to a "timely response and strict restrictions".

The city had introduced "social distancing" and isolated 32 suspected cases－the first reported in Qianjiang－on Jan 17, Wu said. Three days later, leading infectious disease expert Zhong Nanshan announced that the virus could spread among humans.

Wu said: "The mayor and I both thought this was a very serious situation and that we needed to take pre-emptive measures before things became worse," adding that they felt huge pressure in taking such action before human-to-human transmission had been confirmed.

"It's like an enemy. Before you come to know it well, it's best to remain still and besiege it," Wu said, referring to action taken by the city to introduce a lockdown and ban public gatherings, while isolating the first suspected cases quickly.

Each household is also only allowed to send one person to buy necessities every three days.