China’s leaders postponed the biggest event on their political calendar, the National People’s Congress, as the country’s battle against the deadly coronavirus outbreak disrupts the ruling Communist Party’s agenda and hammers the domestic economy. Officials said Monday the key political meetings, originally due to take place from March 5, would be rescheduled for a yet-to-determined time. Analysts said the government in Beijing was worried about the optics of holding a large-scale public event while others lived under lockdown and thousands were sick.

In a speech to Communist Party officials a day earlier, President Xi Jinping warned that the outbreak was a “crisis” that would inevitably jolt the country’s economic development, but pledged that the disruption would be temporary and manageable. Meanwhile, China abruptly backtracked on an earlier announcement that it would relax travel restrictions on the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan, amplifying concerns about the government response to the outbreak.

Here are some other key developments: