China seals off more cities as virus toll climbs

WUHAN -- China sealed off millions more people near the epicenter of a virus outbreak on Friday, shutting down public transport in an eighth city in an unprecedented quarantine effort as the death toll from the disease climbed to 25.

The new virus has caused alarm because of its similarity to SARS , which killed hundreds of people across mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-2003. The normally bustling metropolis of Wuhan, a major industrial and transport hub in the center of the country, slid deeper into surreal isolation as China tightened a transport cordon around it and nearby cities.

But the pathogen, known by its technical name 2019 Novel Coronavirus , has caused alarm throughout the country, with surgical masks selling out at pharmacies and stores in Shanghai, Beijing and other cities.In the latest, the city of Huangshi, which has a population of more than 2 million, announced Friday it had halted public transport and closed a major bridge.

To discourage nationwide holiday travel, the government said beginning Friday anyone who bought a ticket for rail, air, long-distance coach, or water transport could receive a refund upon cancellation. The National Health Commission said that of the 830 cases in China so far, 177 are in serious condition. Authorities were also examining 1,072 suspected cases."This is an emergency in China, but it has not yet become a global health emergency," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters after 2 days of talks in Geneva.

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