Britain on Tuesday urged all of its citizens in China to leave because of the virus outbreak, while Belgium became the latest nation to announce a confirmed case.
The U.K. Foreign Office said in an updated travel advisory that commercial airline options remain available throughout China, with the exception of Hubei province, the epicenter of the outbreak that includes the hard-hit city of Wuhan. The British government said it will still try to evacuate British citizens from Hubei, where some 50 million people are under travel restrictions.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab asked U.K. citizens in China to “leave the country if they can, to minimise their risk of exposure to the virus.”
France also issued an advisory, warning against any non-essential travel to China and suggesting that French citizens in China return home.
More than 20,400 people have been infected with the virus in China and 425 have died. Two other people have tested positive last week for the SARS-like virus in Britain. Both had travelled to China recently.
Some 83 British citizens arrived home on Friday on a UK government-chartered flight from Wuhan, the Chinese city at the centre of the epidemic. They are now in isolation for 14 days.
