The Chinese city is believed to be the epicenter of the outbreak, and health officials have confirmed more than 24,000 cases of the illness worldwide, with the death toll now at 492.

CBS News Asia correspondent Remy Inocencio is following this story from Beijing.

Desperate to Get home around 350 U.

S citizens border two planes last night to escape Wuhan, the center of the Corona virus epidemic.

Priscilla Dickie and her daughter, her miney, were among all those evacuated Weighing Theo, I'm so excited they were screened for symptoms before boarding, but will still be kept in quarantine for up to 14 days in California.

What they're leaving behind is a life on lock down where social media post show the tough measures some Chinese authorities air taking.

This woman is said to have been arrested in a grocery store for refusing to wear a mask.

In another case, a woman gets into a fight after purportedly refusing to have her temperature taken.

Other videos claimed to show authorities dragging people away after they've shown symptoms of the Corona virus.

Beijing has mobilized more than 7000 tons of supplies for people in Wuhan, with the army laying out thousands of empty beds for more patients.

But infections in the epicenter are spreading rapidly.

Experts have said that this epidemic could turn into a pandemic.

How close are we to that?

We're very close.

Dr.

Ian Lipkin is advising Chinese officials he did similar for the SARS crisis here and says Beijing's approach has changed.

There is a very different sort of sense here than there was in 2003.

Everyone realizes the world was interconnected.

We all have to do the best that we can, and Remy joins me Now Live from Beijing, Remy.

Amid this outbreak, passengers are being kept on board to cruise ships.

One is in Hong Kong ones in Japan.

So why are these passengers not being allowed off those ships?

Sure.

Well, in both cases there are suspicions, of course, that someone or many people may have the krone virus specifically with Hong Kong.

The latest that we know is that there are nearly 2000 people on that one ship, and they're basically on lock down like there are tens of millions of people here in mainland China and central hoob a province.

But in terms of what they're trying to do, they're trying to figure out if the crew who have come down with the symptoms of the virus from coughing, thio, shortness of breath and to fever if they do have this or if it is something else.

So you can only imagine being stuck on a cruise trying to go on vacation, pulling into Hong Kong and be told not only that you can't get off with nearly 2000 other people, but then many other people might be sick, not the sort of vacation they send up for.

We saw some of the passengers wearing face masks, masks, but what else do we know about the conditions on board for these passengers?

Sure.

Well, the conditions on board right now, we don't really know so much.

But what we do know is that Hong Kong itself is trying to guard against any possible further contamination case in point.

Hong Kong's chief executive, Carrie Lam, the top leader of the city, just a few hours ago announced that anyone coming from mainland China would be put under a 14 day quarantine.

This is unprecedented for the city.

This starts this Saturday, February 8th, and you got to put this into the context of 2000 and three.

With the SARS epidemic, the SARS pandemic, then the city is definitely reeling from post traumatic stress disorder.

Really?