UPDATE 2-Kazakhstan suspends transport links with China over virus

Kazakhstan is suspending all passenger travel to and from neighbouring China, the Kazakh government said on Wednesday, as an outbreak of a new coronavirus continued to widen.

The government has also suspended issuance of visas to Chinese citizens, it said in a statement. Buses to and from China have already been halted, passenger trains will stop on Feb. 1 and all flights will be suspended from Feb. 3, the government said.

Kazakhstan has registered no cases of the new virus, but it has isolated dozens of people with respiratory infection symptoms upon their return from China and is carrying out additional tests. The former Soviet republic of 19 million has also refused to host the Asian Water Polo Championships next month or serve as a substitute host for the tennis Fed Cup qualifying event initially scheduled for Feb. 4-8 in China's Dongguan.

At a briefing on Wednesday, chief state sanitary doctor Zhandarbek Bekshin urged local companies to make and import more protective masks to meet a surge in domestic demand.

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