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Germany confirms three more cases of coronavirus

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Two aircraft are to evacuate European citizens from Wuhan as airlines suspend travel to China over the new coronavirus as health officials said the number of confirmed cases in Germany has risen to four.

The first rescue plane will depart France on Wednesday morning and will repatriate 250 French citizens.

More than 100 EU citizens will be repatriated on a second aircraft later in the week. The transport costs will be co-financed by the EU after a request by France for assistance.

Germany’s Federal Health Ministry told Euronews 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.

British Airways said on Wednesday morning it was suspending all flights to and from mainland China “with immediate effect” after the UK Foreign Office advised against all but essential travel.

British people returning from Wuhan will be quarantined for 14 days at a military base, the Department for Health said.

With more than 5,974 confirmed cases, the new coronavirus has officially overtaken the SARS outbreak — although the death toll remains lower.

French health officials said on Tuesday that a fourth person has been diagnosed with the virus: an elderly woman in Paris, who is in a serious condition.

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.

The country is entering a “grave and complicated stage” as the ability of a new type of virus to spread is “getting stronger”, said China’s health commission minister.

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.

Eight 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.

So far, France has confirmed four cases and Germany fiour.

French health officials say the people diagnosed with coronavirus are doing “very well” and that fears of a European epidemic are premature.

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 Saunday 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 ineffective.

Health officials in Paris and in Lyon, however, will also be able to do a diagnostic test in health centres for the virus.

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