The publicity tour for the twenty-fifth installment of the ‘James Bond’ film series, scheduled to hold in Beijing, China, has been canceled over fears of coronavirus.

There has been public disquiet in the Asian country ever since the “mysterious” disease broke out in Wuhan with the death toll hitting over 1,600. Travel advisories have been issued while medical experts are also working tirelessly to come up with a vaccine for the epidemic.

Makers of ‘No Time to Die’, Daniel Craig’s fifth and final appearance in the blockbuster series, were forced to cancel their publicity tour of China as cinemas in the Asian country remain shut to contain the coronavirus.

According to The Sunday Times, an estimated 70,000 cinema screens across China have remained closed in a development that took a toll on the film business from Shanghai to London.

‘No Time to Die’, due for its UK release on April 3, had been projected to be the highest-grossing Bond movie but filmmakers is already expressing their doubts with the cutback in Chinese revenues.

A new trailer for ‘No Time to Die’ was released on Saturday, featuring some new scenes. A Chinese studio insider was also quoted by the news outlet as saying that cinemas in the country may remain closed until at least April and doctors may likely not allow publicity tours to go ahead.

The Chinese market has the world’s second-biggest box office takings, having generated over £6 billion in 2019, with Disney’s ‘Avengers: Endgame’ grossing more than £450m in the country alone.

‘No Time to Die’ is produced by Eon Productions and directed by Cary Fukunaga.