China expanded drastic travel restrictions Monday to contain an epidemic that has killed 56 people and infected nearly 2,000, as the US,
France and
Japan 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 in a bid to slow the spread of the respiratory virus.
Its ability to spread appears to be "getting stronger" though it is "not as powerful as SARS", top Chinese health officials said at a press conference.