Hours ticked by Saturday (February 1) as 50-year-old Lu Yuejin struggled to get across the police checkpoint on the Jiujiang Yangtze river bridge. Lu, a farmer from a village on the Hubei side of the bridge, was trying to gain passage for her daughter, 26-year-old Hu Ping, who has leukaemia.
The bridge links the Hubei region, where the coronavirus was first spotted, with the nearby Jiangxi region, and has been largely closed off in an attempt to halt the spread of the new disease.
Several people have attempted to cross the police checkpoint in recent days. Some have succeeded by holding the right train or plane ticket bought before January 24, but many have failed.
For much of Saturday, that was the case for Lu and her daughter.
"My daughter needs to go to hospital in Jiujiang," she said at the checkpoint. "She needs to have her treatment. But they won't let us through."
Her daughter sat on the ground wrapped in a blanket while Lu tearfully pleaded with police.
"Please, take my daughter. I don't need to go past... please, just let my daughter go past," she asked.
Her cries for help were almost drowned out by a loudspeaker playing a pre-recorded message that residents would not be allowed past to Jiujiang.
Lu explained that none of the hospitals in her region were equipped to treat her daughter, who needs her second round of chemotherapy.
She said they would usually have gone to Wuhan for treatment, but doctors told her that they were at capacity with the thousands of patients being treated for the coronavirus.
"All I want to do is save her life," she said.
About an hour after she spoke to Reuters at the checkpoint on Saturday, the police began to move.
Phone calls were made and eventually Lu and Hu were both allowed through and an ambulance was called to pick them both up.
Hu appeared to be limping as she walked through temperature checks at the checkpoint and towards the ambulance.
China has imposed a virtual lockdown on Hubei province in recent days as the country seeks to contain the coronavirus outbreak which has killed over 200 and infected thousands worldwide.
The World Health Organisation declared an "emergency" on Thursday (January 30) over the virus outbreak.
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