On 23 January 2020, the central government of the People's Republic of China imposed a lockdown in Wuhan and other cities in Hubei province in an effort to quarantine the epicenter of a newly discovered novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV to prevent an epidemic. This incident is commonly referred to as the "Wuhan Lockdown" (Chinese: 武汉封城; pinyin: Wǔhàn fēng chéng) in the media. The World Health Organization (WHO), although stating that it was beyond its own guidelines, commended the move, calling it "unprecedented in public health history".[1]