Coronavirus: Britain, France urge citizens to leave China

Britain has urged all of its citizens in China to leave the country because of the outbreak of a respiratory illness from Novel Coronavirus, while Belgium became the latest nation to announce a confirmed case.

 

An advisory issued by the U.K. Foreign Office said that while commercial flights remained available from most of mainland China, travel restrictions introduced by the Chinese Government to contain the epidemic meant, it may become harder to access departure options over the coming weeks.

France also issued an advisory, warning against any non-essential travel to China and suggesting that French citizens, who were already there, should return



home.

Belgium, meanwhile, reported its first case of the Coronavirus, found in one of the nine citizens who were repatriated from Wuhan over the weekend. Germany confirmed two more cases of the virus.

In all, Europe had 28 confirmed cases of the virus as of yesterday, Germany had 12; France six; Russia, Italy and the U.K have two each and Finland, Sweden, Spain and Belgium have one each.

More than 20,400 people have been infected with the virus in China and over 400 died.

Two other people have died in the Philippines and Hong Kong and 20 other nations have reported cases.