Perhaps China's 'ghost cities' are being used as Hollywood sets to 'produce' a 'pandemic', scenes of chaos and despair, and whatever else they want people to believe, etc…

Towns and cities are regularly made for movies, military training, ''experiments', cover stories (Oak Ridge, TN as example), etc…

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/11/where-are-chinas-ghost-cities