The death toll from the coronavirus spreading across China has risen to at least 125, as the United States and other countries prepared to fly their citizens out of the locked-down city at the centre of the outbreak.
Some 17 cities with more than 50 million people have been placed on lockdown, as the number of cases surged to 4,515 on Monday from 2,835 the previous day. Cases have also been confirmed in Germany, the United States, Thailand, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Nepal, France, Canada, Australia and Sri Lanka.
British ministers have said they are working to get Britons out of Hubei province in China, with Boris Johnson insisting the government is doing “everything we can”.
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China's death toll from the coronavirus has risen by 25 to at least 106, with a national total of 4,515 cases, according to the National Health Commission.
It said 976 people were in serious condition.
The death toll includes the first death in Beijing, the Chinese capital, and 24 more fatalities in Hubei province, where the first illnesses from the newly identified coronavirus occurred in December.
Matt Hancock has called on more than 1,000 people who have travelled to the UK from Wuhan to "self-isolate" in order to stop its spread, Vincent Wood reports.
The health secretary urged those who had passed through the city where the outbreak began to isolate quarantine themselves for 14 days.
Britons in China say they have been ‘abandoned’ as coronavirus death toll reaches 100
Professor warns disease likely already in UK as Germany reports first caseThe US Consulate in Wuhan, where authorities cut off most access on 22 January in an effort to contain the disease, was preparing to fly its diplomats and some other Americans out of the city.
Japan, France, South Korea, Mongolia and other governments also planned evacuations.
China has reported eight cases in Hong Kong and five in Macau, and more than 45 cases have been confirmed elsewhere in the world. Almost all involve mainland Chinese tourists or people who visited Wuhan.
Germany confirmed its first case yesterday. Infections also have been confirmed in the United States, Thailand, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Nepal, France, Canada, Australia and Sri Lanka.
The five American cases — two in southern California and one each in Washington state, Chicago and Arizona — are people who had recently arrived from central China. Health officials said they had no evidence the virus was spreading in the US and they believe the risk to Americans remains low.
'We are working on it', UK transport secretary says
Speaking about plans to repatriate UK citizens stranded in Wuhan due to the coronavirus, Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, told BBC Breakfast: "We are working on it. For anybody who is there, one of the issues we have, working with our partners internationally on this, is actually identifying how many British citizens there are in Wuhan.
"One of the things we're asking people to do is to contact the consulate there to make them aware. People have started to do that.
"We are working on arrangements as well. So making contact would be very helpful indeed."
He added: "If they actually contact the consulate where they are then that consulate is in fact gathering together all the information of the people who are there in order to help repatriate where that's appropriate.
"That is very much what's required at this stage."
US health officials have expanded their recommendation for people to avoid non-essential travel to any part of China, rather than just Wuhan and other areas most affected by the outbreak, Clark Mindock writes.
US urges passengers to 'reconsider' travelling to China
At least five confirmed cases in US, as UK officials request potential patients self-isolateHong Kong suspends high-speed rail service to mainland
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has said the high-speed rail service between the city and mainland China would be suspended from Thursday and all cross-border ferry services would also be suspended in a bid to stop the spread of coronavirus.
Wearing a green face mask, Ms Lam told a press briefing the number of flights to mainland China would also be halved and personal travel permits for mainland Chinese to the city would be suspended.
Japan confirms patient who caught coronavirus did not visit China
A person in Japan who had not visited the area of a deadly viral outbreak in China has contracted coronavirus, the country’s health minister has reportedly confirmed. The infected person is a tour bus driver in his 60s in the city of Nara, Katsunobu Kato said, according to the Kyodo news agency.Japan says China has agreed to accept one plane flying from Tokyo to Wuhan to bring home some of the 650 Japanese who say they want to leave city.
The country's foreign minister, Toshimitsu Motegi, said the plane departing Tokyo later today was set to return with about 200 people tomorrow morning.
He said Japan has been talking with the Chinese government about such arrangements as it explores "all possible options" to bring the Japanese people in Wuhan home.
More than half a million South Koreans have signed a petition calling for a ban on visitors from China as Seoul announced it would evacuate citizens from the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak.
A petition filed with the presidential Blue House last week had gathered more than 540,000 signatures by Tuesday, highlighting a growing fear in South Korea the coronavirus could spread.
"Coronavirus is spreading from China. Even North Korea is banning Chinese people from entering," wrote the anonymous author of the petition, adding that even a temporary ban would help stop the virus from spreading too widely.
The Blue House has not directly responded to the petition. When asked about other countries' bans on Chinese entries, its spokesman said only that the issue should be handled in close consultation with the World Health Organization.
Britain is urgently exploring options to evacuate its citizens from the Chinese city of Wuhan, Boris Johnson's spokesman has said.
"The Foreign Office is urgently exploring options for British nationals to leave Hubei province, the details are being finalised," he said.
British officials estimate up to 200 UK citizens currently in Hubei province will want to return to the UK.
If they end up being flown home by the Foreign Office, health officials will also tell them to "self-isolate" for 14 days. If they are unable to stay at home, quarantine facilities will be provided, officials said.
Mr Hancock told MPs in the Commons he had directed Public Health England to take a "belt and braces approach". He said officials could not be 100 per cent certain the virus is not spread by people who are not displaying symptoms.
China's president has told the visiting chief of the World Health Organisation he was confident of winning the battle against a "devil" coronavirus.
"The virus is a devil and we cannot let the devil hide," state television quoted Xi Jinping as saying.
"China will strengthen international cooperation and welcomes the WHO participation in virus prevention ... We believe that the WHO and international community will give a calm, objective and rational assessment of the virus and China is confident of winning the battle against the virus."
Mr Xi discussed ways to protect Chinese and foreigners in the area affected by the coronavirus with Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, as well as "possible alternatives" to evacuations, a WHO spokesperson said.
Thailand has announced plans to screen all arrivals from China for symptoms of the coronavirus and confirmed six more infections among such visitors, taking its tally to 14, health officials said.
Thai tourist authorities meanwhile said the number of Chinese tourists to Thailand was expected to fall by 2 million to 9 million this year due to the coronavirus oubreak in China.
Thais were also advised to avoid non-essential travel to China, Sukhum Kanchanapimai, the health ministry's permanent secretary, told a news conference.
The Foreign Office has organised an evacuation flight out of Wuhan due for Thursday morning, the BBC has reported.
Robin Brant, the broadcaster's China correspondent, said he understood from one family in Wuhan that the flight would be bound for Gatwick.
A spokesperson for the Foreign Office told The Independent they were unable to provide confirmation or any further details.
Taiwan has confirmed its first case of domestic transmission of the new coronavirus.
The new patient - a man in his 50s - was infected by his wife after she returned from working in China and before she was diagnosed with the illness.
It is the island's eight confirmed case of coronavirus.
Taiwan's Central Epidemic Command Centre also warned people not to travel to China unless absolutely necessary.
It follows confirmation that two coronavirus patients from Japan and Germany had not visited China.
Japan and Germany confirm patients who caught coronavirus did not visit China
The IndependentNearly all cases come from Wuhan area
Hong Kong has also said it will "temporarily" close some of its borders with mainland China and stop issuing travel permits to mainland Chinese tourists in an attempt to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Finnish airline Finnair has announced it will suspend its routes to Nanjing and Beijing's Daxing airport until the end of March.
The company said it made the decision in response to China's suspension of all group travel out of the country.
It is the first European airline to cancel flights to mainland China amid growing fears about the spread of the new coronavirus.
However Finnair will continue to operate daily flights to Beijing Capital Airport and to Shanghai, twice a day to Hong Kong, and twice a week to Guangzhou.
A tourist from Taiwan has claimed people ran away from him in Croatia because they were afraid of catching the coronavirus.
Yu Jiu Lu, writing on his Facebook page, told how he responded by holding a sign reading: "Not from China".
"People are afraid of Chinese because they think chinese has Wuhan coronavirus nowaday," he said. "People see me and they run away in Croatia. They think I am from China. So I wrote “Not from China” on the paper, and people see me and they laughed."
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