Hancock ‘takes no chances’ over virus
HEALTH SECRETARY Matt Hancock has said the Government is “taking no chances” with British citizens at risk of coronavirus as the Foreign Office scheduled its last evacuation flight from China.
On Tuesday, the Foreign Office urged all British nationals to leave China after the outbreak continued to claim lives.
Speaking yesterday, Mr Hancock said the advice was a “science-led approach” based on the severity of the virus and its impact in China.
Asked how logistically Britons are expected to return to the UK, he said: “There are still commercial flights available. The principle that we are taking is that we want to take no chances with this virus. “We want to take a science-led approach. “The approach we have been taking is very much driven by the advice of the chief medical officer.
“This is a very serious virus and having a very serious impact in China. There are two cases only here in the UK but we do expect more, so we are taking no chances.”
On Tuesday evening, eight British nationals and their dependants left the virus-hit city of Wuhan on a flight to Auckland, New
Zealand. Diplomat Danae Dholakia said the Air New Zealand flight was delayed to allow the final passenger, a four-year-old British child, to get clearance to fly.
Paul Maloney, who works for the British Council in China, praised the British Embassy in Beijing for getting his family, including his young son Theo, an emergency passport in order to travel.
“So grateful to @ukinchina for their Herculean effort to get my family home from China. They got us an emergency passport in half a day. So they could travel home,” he wrote.
It was announced late on Tuesday that the UK Government will charter a final flight from China to bring British nationals back to the UK this week. The plane is expected to leave in the early hours of Sunday morning local time and will land at RAF Brize Norton, the Foreign Office said, adding that they want to ensure that all British nationals in Hubei province contact their team to register if they want to leave on the flight.
The PA news agency understands that 165 Britons and their dependants remain in Hubei province, the epicentre of the outbreak, while 108 people have requested assistance to leave as of the early hours of yesterday.
A total of 94 UK nationals and family members have already been evacuated to Britain from Wuhan on two flights which arrived on Friday and Sunday.
The death toll from the coronavirus outbreak continues to rise with Chinese authorities reporting 490 victims and an increase in the number of cases to 24,324.
Also in China, the Global Times newspaper reported that a newborn baby in Wuhan has been diagnosed with coronavirus, leading medical experts to suggest the virus can somehow be transmitted between mother and baby.