A planned flight repatriating hundreds of British nationals from Wuhan to the UK has been delayed, the Foreign Office has confirmed, as the death toll from the coronavirus outbreak rose to 170.
The British flight was scheduled to leave Wuhan on Thursday but it is understood that Chinese permissions have not yet come through, effectively grounding the flight.
“We are doing everything we can to get British people in Wuhan safely back to the UK. A number of countries’ flights have been unable to take off as planned. We continue working urgently to organise a flight to the UK as soon as possible,” the Foreign Office said in a statement.
European nations are evacuating residents from Chinese cities as the deadly coronavirus spreads, with new cases in Finland, Germany and China, where 170 people have died and thousands infected.
With 5,974 confirmed cases in China as of Wednesday, the coronavirus has now infected more people than during the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak.
A number of American and British carriers have now cut back or completely suspended flights to and from China, including British Airways and American Airlines.
Finland was the latest European country to confirm a case of coronavirus on Wednesday, bringing the total number of cases on the continent to five.
A Chinese tourist was found to be infected with the virus at a hospital in Lapland, according to a statement on Wednesday from Finland’s National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL).
It said the tourist was from Wuhan – the epicentre of the outbreak – and that a further 15 people may have been exposed.
It follows four further cases confirmed in France and Germany earlier this week.
Also Wednesday, the U.S. evacuated 201 Americans from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus. They will now undergo three days of monitoring at a California military base to ensure they show no signs of the illness.
One aeroplane, which was due to leave France on Wednesday morning, will repatriate around 250 French citizens, while a second will repatriate more than 100 EU citizens later in the week.
The transport costs will be co-financed by the EU.
Meanwhile, British Airways and Lufthansa have both suspended their scheduled flights to mainland China.
Planes carrying hundreds of Japanese and American evacuees also left Wuhan on Wednesday morning.
Australia and New Zealand are also planning to evacuate their nationals.
With more than 5,974 confirmed cases, the new coronavirus has officially overtaken the SARS outbreak — although the death toll remains lower.
Germany’s Federal Health Ministry told Euronews on Wednesday that officials in Bavaria had confirmed the number of cases in the country had risen from one to four. No further information was immediately available.
As the #Coronavirus outbreak intensifies, the EU Civil Protection Mechanism has been activated on request from France.
Two planes will be mobilised to repatriate EU citizens from the Wuhan area to Europe.
➡️ https://t.co/HKMpin3PE1Overview of the outbreak with latest data ↓ pic.twitter.com/RmyLuyqUf2
— European Commission ?? (@EU_Commission) January 28, 2020
Speaking in Beijing, Ma Xiaowei declined to estimate how long it would take to bring the situation under control. He said there was still limited knowledge of the mechanism of spread of the virus, as well as the risk of it mutating.
Gao Fu, director of China’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters scientists were closely watching the virus and its behaviour and so far no obvious changes had been found.
Meanwhile, the US confirmed five cases of coronavirus, including new cases in Arizona and California.
Nine cases confirmed in Europe
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has warned that it is “likely that there will be more imported cases” of the virus from China.
French health officials say the people diagnosed with coronavirus are doing “very well” and that fears of a European epidemic are premature.
Authorities in Germany confirmed the country’s first case on Tuesday. A 33-year-old man had contracted the virus after meeting a Chinese training colleague.
President of the Bavarian State Office for Health and Food Safety, Andreas Zapf, said the man’s state was “fine” and had “not deteriorated”. “We’ll see how long the inpatient stay is necessary,” he declared, adding that his family and the colleagues he had contact with will stay home for the incubation time of 14 days.
‘Further deaths are expected’
Josep Jansa, ECDC Principal Expert for Emergency Preparedness and Response, said in a statement on Sunday that “since the original source remains unknown and human-to-human transmission has been documented, further cases and deaths are expected.”
Other cases have been reported in Australia, Canada, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, South Korea, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.
The youngest patient worldwide is a nine-month-old girl in Beijing.
Travel lockdown in China
In Hubei, bustling streets, shops, restaurants and other public spaces in the city were eerily empty as authorities put more than a dozen cities on lockdown.
The city of Wuhan, where the outbreak originated, announced it will build a designated hospital with space for 1,000 beds by February 3, in the style of a facility that Beijing constructed during the SARS epidemic in 2003.
Police, SWAT teams and paramilitary troops guarded the city’s train station, where metal barriers blocked the entrances.
The cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Xian and Tianjin have suspended long-distance coach services, as well as the vast province of Shandong.
As a symbol of the concern that has gripped China, the authorities have announced the closure of sections of the famous Great Wall, as well as the Disneyland resort site in Shanghai.
Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam has announced on Tuesday that all rail links to mainland China will be closed starting Friday, in order to contain the contagion. This includes both the high-speed rail station and the regular train station.
Mongolia already closed its vast border with China and North Korea said it was strengthening quarantine measures, considering such measures.
Global precautions for coronavirus
Three airports in the European Union (EU) have direct flight connections to Wuhan, while there are indirect flight connections to other European hubs.
In France, there are no plans to screen passengers for fever in airports which officials believe is an ineffective.
Health officials in Paris and in Lyon, however, will also be able to do a diagnostic test in health centres for the virus.
