China canceled the central event of its political calendar because of the coronavirus, a stark symbol of how it has lost control of the outbreak

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• China cancelled the central event of its political calendar for the first time in decades as the deadly coronavirus continues to damage the country.
• The annual meeting of the National People's Congress in Beijing was due to start on March, but will now be delayed.
• Experts say the risk of the disease spreading of the event is high, and measures like a 14-day quarantine on arrivals to Beijing would make the logistics of such an event difficult.
• Experts also say that the decision to delay the event could be the party's effort to signal that it is taking the virus seriously and making fighting it its top priority.
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China cancelled the central event of its political calendar because of the crippling impact of the coronavirus epidemic that has killed more than 2,500 people there.

China was due to kick off the annual meeting of the National People's Congress in Beijing, which symbolically approves the nation's political agenda for the year, on March 5.

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See Also:

• Cases of the coronavirus are spiking outside of China and the World Health Organization warned 'the window of opportunity is narrowing' to contain it
• South Korea accepted that its efforts to stop the coronavirus from infecting the country failed and says it's pivoting to containment
• The coronavirus death toll has reached 2,360, with more than 77,000 infected. Here's everything we know about the outbreak.

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