Britons in mainland China told to leave if they can

LONDON: Britons in mainland China have been urged to leave as coronavirus continues to claim more lives in the country.

The Foreign Office amended its travel advice after Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he expects more cases of the virus to be diagnosed in the UK.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said: “We now advise British nationals in China to leave the country if they can, to minimise their risk of exposure to the virus.

“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.”

The Foreign Office added that commercial flights departing China were available throughout the country, except in Hubei where virus originated.

It comes as Raab told MPs the Government has been “allocated 14 places on an Air New Zealand fight today for UK nationals and their dependants”.

The Foreign Office has declined to say how many British nationals in Hubei province have come forward to say they wish to return to the UK — but the last flights out of Wuhan are expected to leave this week.

The updated Foreign Office advice comes after Hancock said on Monday there were “no plans to evacuate all remaining UK nationals in China”. He told MPs in the Commons: “There’s an estimated 30,000 UK nationals in China and the proportion of the population who have the virus outside of Wuhan is much lower than in Wuhan itself.”

On Tuesday, Hancock met with German health minister Jens Spahn. Speaking ahead of the meeting, Hancock said: “We haven’t seen the peak of the coronavirus by a long stretch and we expect more cases in the UK.

“We have a full plan in place to treat all those who have symptoms and test positively for coronavirus and we are working with international partners both to slow the spread and also to do the research that we need to do to find a vaccine.”

Two people, a University of York student and one of their relatives, continue to be treated for coronavirus in the specialist infectious diseases unit at Newcastle Royal Victoria Infirmary.

Meanwhile, health officials are trying to trace 239 people who flew from Wuhan to the UK before travel restrictions associated with coronavirus came into force.

A total of 94 UK nationals and family members have been evacuated to Britain from Wuhan on two flights which arrived on Friday and Sunday.

One passenger was taken to hospital in Oxford after telling medics he had symptoms of a cough and a cold. The rest of those who came back are currently in quarantine at Arrowe Park Hospital on the Wirral.

Meanwhile, Chinese authorities said on Tuesday that the death toll in mainland China from the coronavirus outbreak has risen to 425, with the number of cases now standing at 20,438.

In an interview with the PA news agency on Tuesday, a British man who fears he contracted coronavirus said he has been given no indication of when he will be able to leave Wuhan.

Jamie Morris, a 23-year-old teacher from New Tredegar in South Wales, said he believes he may have contracted the virus at the end of November, before the mass outbreak prompted global media attention. “They diagnosed me as having potential pneumonia but couldn’t confirm it,” he said.

“I had all the symptoms, literally everything that has been said by the Government,

however it was before the virus was made public knowledge.”

He said he had not been able to make the recent flights back to the UK because his passport had been given to the Chinese government to lengthen his residency permit.

He said that when he has contacted the Foreign Office’s crisis team in London “they just tell me to be patient and they will be in touch if anything changes.

“I am currently on my own in my apartment, isolated from the outside world as you would say. At this point, I am willing to go to any other country, but it’s all down to the UK embassy.”