30,000 Britons in China told: Get out while you still can
AT least 30,000 Britons have been urged to flee China to save themselves from coronavirus.
The warning from Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab came as it emerged that a Belgian woman who travelled on the same flight to France as 11 British nationals on Sunday was diagnosed with the virus.
Mr Raab told expats, holidaymakers and those on business trips they must leave to ‘minimise their risk of exposure’.
The Government fears that if they don’t get out soon they will be stranded as flights and other transport links are cancelled.
British Airways and Virgin Atlantic – the UK’s only airlines serving China – have already suspended direct flights, and only a handful of Chinese carriers are still operating a direct service.
Mr Raab urged around 29,500 Britons living in China – and those visiting – to make plans to leave. He said the Government would help those at the epicentre of the outbreak, adding: ‘ Where there are still British nationals in Hubei Province who wish to be evacuated, we will continue to work around the clock to facilitate this.’
Families will have to decide whether to abandon their lives or holidays and pay up to £500 each for a flight to the UK. Whitehall officials are concerned that transport restrictions in China and Asia could tighten, making it harder for Britons to go. Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines have banned arrivals of anyone who has been to China within a fortnight.
There have been 427 confirmed deaths, and the number of confirmed cases worldwide has passed 20,600. The virus has spread to 25 countries outside China, but the World Health Organisation said yesterday the outbreak had not become a pandemic. A healthy baby, free of the virus, has been born to an infected mother at an isolation unit in Harbin, China. Both are in quarantine, along with the medics who performed the caesarean section.
A group of Southampton University students have quarantined themselves after one fell ill after a trip to China, despite tests proving negative. York University said a student in quarantine did not come into contact with others after returning to his digs with the virus.