China hardens virus defences as death toll hits 56

China on Sunday expanded drastic travel restrictions to contain a viral contagion that has killed 56 people and infected nearly 2,000, as the United States and France prepared to evacuate their citizens from a quarantined city at the outbreak's epicentre. China has locked down the hard-hit province of Hubei in the country's centre in an unprecedented operation affecting tens of millions of people to slow the spread of a respiratory illness that President Xi Jinping said posed a "grave" threat. Outside the epicentre, three cities, including Beijing, and an eastern province announced bans on long-distance buses from entering or leaving their borders.
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