China has expanded an unprecedented lockdown during the country’s most important holiday to 13 cities and at least 36 million people, as efforts to contain the deadly new coronavirus were stepped up around the world and the first cases were reported in Europe.

Restrictions on movement were widened on Friday in China in an effort to stop the spread of the disease.

Late on Friday, authorities confirmed a further 15 deaths and 180 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number of fatalities to 41 people and more than 1 000 affected.

Cases have been reported across South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, the United States, Thailand and Vietnam.

On Friday, the first cases were reported in Europe with France saying it had identified three cases.

The French health minister, Agnès Buzyn, said it was likely there would be other cases.

Buzyn added that the cases involved people who had travelled to China and two of them were from the same family.
Chinese officials shut part of the Great Wall and suspended public transport in the affected cities, stranding millions of people at the start of the lunar new year holiday amid growing anger about the government’s handling of the crisis. Beijing’s famous temple fairs, a tradition during lunar new year celebrations, will not go ahead, while Shanghai Disneyland announced it would also close indefinitely.

McDonald’s announced that it has also suspended its businesses in five affected cities.

Some have questioned if the closures of airports and train stations in Wuhan on Thursday morning were introduced too late, since many residents will already have set off for the holiday.

On Friday, the People’s Daily, the Chinese Communist party’s main newspaper, called for people who have recently been to Wuhan to isolate themselves at home, even if they do not have symptoms.

Beijing is to take stricter and more targeted measures in the coming days, state television reported, without giving further details.

“The spread of the virus has not been cut off . . . Local authorities should take more responsibility and have a stronger sense of urgency,” state broadcaster CCTV said.

The World Health Organisation stopped short of declaring the outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern, but called on the global community to work together to fight the virus.-State media