British Airways has suspended all flights to and from mainland China as the Government finalises urgent plans to bring citizens back from the coronavirus-hit province of Hubei.
The airline, which operates daily flights to Shanghai and Beijing from Heathrow, said it was halting the flights with immediate effect after the Foreign Office warned against ‘all but essential travel’ to the country because of the virus outbreak.
What measures are other countries taking?
A government-chartered plane carrying 206 Japanese nationals arrived in Tokyo from Wuhan on Wednesday morning. Officials in the US, meanwhile, said a chartered plane had left Wuhan earlier on Wednesday with about 200 US citizens onboard, including staff from the local US consulate. Australia is also going to fly out 600 of theirs citizens from Wuhan. However, Pakistan has done nothing yet about the evacuation of 300 Pakistani students stuck in Wuhan.