A view of Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province (Xinhua/Xiong Qi)

According to a statement released by the Pneumonia Epidemic Control Headquarters of Wuhan, the central China city, where an outbreak of pneumonia caused by a new strain of Coronavirus has claimed 17 lives in three weeks, is suspending all public transport to prevent the spread of disease.

Starting from 10:00 a.m. Thursday, the city will shut down all outbound ways of airports and railways, the statement says.

The government askes local residents not to leave Wuhan "without special reasons."

Services of bus, subway and inter-city bus are also going to be suspended.

Nearly 500 cases of infections of this new virus has been reported nationwide in China as of Wednesday. Most of them are in Wuhan, and the rest were mostly traced back to people traveling from Wuhan.