A British ex-pat living in China said people are being forced to queue for at least an hour to get face masks to protect them from the coronavirus, with the death toll having topped 200.
The 27-year-old English teacher, who did not wish to be named, described Dalian, almost 800 miles north of Wuhan where the epidemic started, as "like a ghost town" at night with most places shut and the streets empty.
But by day he said hundreds of people are queuing in the city centre outside a pharmacy to get fresh face masks to keep the deadly virus at bay.
A total of 110 passengers - 83 Brits and 27 foreign nationals - are flying from the disease's epicentre city Wuhan and due to arrive this afternoon in the UK.
They leave behind a country that has seen 213 people killed by the virus, with more than 9,000 more infected, says the British government.
But having moved to China 18 months ago to teach, and Dalian specifically six months ago, the ex-pat said he is "happy to stay" and if he does get the virus is "reasonably young - if I get sick I will get over it".
"If I do go home I am risking spreading the disease [in the UK]," he continued. "I would not want to be the one responsible for that.
"I know ex-pats who have left but I made the decision to stay here as long as possible."
He said he will return to Britain, however, if he has no other choice in the near future.
Describing the mood of the people queuing for masks, he said "patient" and "quietly talking amongst themselves".
"I was probably the most anxious there as I didn't know what was going on," he added.
He went on to explain that each city in China had different points where people can collect face masks.
"People are quite worried about it all, and going outside in the evening it's like a ghost town.
"There are only a few things open, a few restaurants and a shopping mall but it's not business as usual," he added.
The United States has warned Americans not to travel to China at all as the death toll from a new virus reached 213 today and the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global health emergency.
In a new travel advisory, the State Department raised its warning for China to the same level as Afghanistan and Iraq, saying on its website, "Do not travel to China due to novel coronavirus first identified in Wuhan."
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told parliament the government had decided to raise its infectious disease advisory level for China, urging citizens to avoid non-urgent trips.
Japan's advisory for China's central province of Hubei, where the virus first emerged, is one level higher, advising citizens not to travel there.
Beijing has not commented on the US travel warning, but in response to the WHO declaration, a foreign ministry spokeswoman said China had taken "the most comprehensive and rigorous prevention and control measures".
"We have full confidence and capability to win this fight against the epidemic," spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a statement.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the body "doesn't recommend - and actually opposes" curbs on travel or trade with China.
The death toll in Hubei stood at 204, with 9,692 infections nationwide by Thursday, China's health authorities said.
As many as 129 cases have been reported in 22 other countries and regions, but no deaths outside China.
International alarm over the new coronavirus that surfaced in December in Hubei's capital of Wuhan is driven by its rapid spread and the fact that doctors cannot yet tell how deadly or contagious it is.
All air traffic between Italy and China will stop, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said, taking a more drastic step than most countries, after Italy announced its first confirmed cases in two Chinese tourists.
More airlines have stopped flying to mainland China, including Air France KLM SA, British Airways, Germany's Lufthansa and Virgin Atlantic, while others have cut flights.
