China has mourned the victims of the coronavirus outbreak by observing a three-minute silence, bringing the nation to a halt.

A day of remembrance was declared in China on Saturday to honour the more than 3,300 people who died of Covid-19.

At 10 a.m. (0200 GMT) Beijing time, the country observed three minutes of silence to mourn those who died, including frontline medical workers and doctors. Cars, trains and ships sounded their horns and air raid sirens wailed.

In Zhongnanhai, the seat of political power in Beijing, President Xi Jinping and other Chinese leaders paid silent tribute in front of the national flag, with white flowers pinned to their chest as a mark of mourning, state media reported.

More than 3,300 people in mainland China have died in the epidemic, which first surfaced in the central province of Hubei late last year, according to statistics published by the National Health Commission.

In Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province and the epicentre of the outbreak, all traffic lights in urban areas turned red at 10 a.m. and all road traffic ceased for three minutes.

Some 2,567 people have died in the city of 11 million people, accounting for more than 75% of the country’s coronavirus fatalities.

Among those who perished was Li Wenliang, a young doctor reprimanded by police in Wuhan for “spreading rumours” when he tried to raise the alarm about the disease.

Since then, the virus has spread to all corners of the globe, sickening more than a million, killing over 55,000 people and paralysing the world economy.

The overall number of confirmed cases reported in the United States now exceeds China’s official tally by threefold.