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China quarantines cities to curb virus, but WHO says no global emergency

The respiratory virus has claimed 18 lives since emerging from a seafood and animal market in the central city of Wuhan.

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A man wearing a mask reads on the subway in Beijing, China January 21, 2020 | Photo: Reuters

AFP | PTI
China locked down some 20 million people at the epicentre of a deadly virus outbreak on Thursday, but the World Health Organization said the disease did not yet constitute a global health emergency.

The respiratory virus has claimed 18 lives since emerging from a seafood and animal market in the central city of Wuhan, infected hundreds of other people and been detected as far away as the United States.

The new virus has caused alarm because of its similarity to SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which killed nearly 650 people across mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-2003.

But after two days of