Brits have been warned to stay away from the Wuhan area of China because of the deadly coronavirus crisis.
Seventeen people have died and hundreds more have been taken ill with the SARS-like condition, which has spread from China to the US, Japan and South Korea.
The city of Wuhan - where the virus is believed to have originated - has been put on lockdown, with local transport networks set to close at 10am tomorrow.
Its airport and train stations will be closed to outgoing passengers as officials desperately struggle to contain the outbreak.
Heathrow Airport has already set up a separate area for passengers arriving from Wuhan - the epicentre of the outbreak - to keep them away from other travellers.
Have you been affected by coronavirus or the new flight measures? Email webnews@mirror.co.uk.
This evening a Foreign Office spokesman said: “In light of the latest medical information, including reports of some person-to-person transmission, and the Chinese authorities’ own advice, we are now advising against all but essential travel to Wuhan.
“The safety and security of British nationals is always our primary concern, and we advise British nationals travelling to China to remain vigilant and check our travel advice on gov.uk .”
There are fears the virus, which can cause pneumonia, could spread to Britain and other countries in the coming days as hundreds of millions of Chinese residents travel domestically and abroad for the busy Lunar New Year.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has said Public Health England is putting in place new precautions in relation to travellers to the UK from the region.
"There have been some announcements this morning about flights that come direct from the affected region to Heathrow with some additional measures there," he told Sky News.
"At the moment Public Health England have moved this from 'very low' to 'low' but obviously we want to stay ahead of the issue so we are keeping a very close eye on it.
"Initially this is to ensure that when flights come in directly into Heathrow there is a separate area for people to arrive in."
Research conducted at China’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention suggests it shared a common ancestor with severe acute respiratory syndrome, or Sars.
The latter disease was a virus found in fruit bats which transferred to humans and claimed 774 lives.
Fortunately, in its current form the coronavirus is a weaker strain than its early 2000s relative, SCMP reported.
It is thought that fruit bats are also natural Ebola virus hosts, according to the World Health Organisation.
Gao Fu, director of the disease management centre, believes the virus originated from wild animals sold at a seafood market in Wuhan.
He warned that a major challenge was that the new strain was adapting and mutating.
