Coronavirus: Delayed UK evacuation flight will leave China on Friday

Passengers will be taken to NHS facility for 14-day quarantine period

A flight to evacuate British citizens from the city at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak in China has been delayed until Friday morning, the foreign secretary has said.

The flight will leave Wuhan at 5am local time on Friday morning, which is 9pm on Thursday in the UK.

“We are pleased to have confirmation from the Chinese authorities that the evacuation flight from Wuhan airport to the UK can depart at 0500 local time on Friday,” Dominic Raab said.

“The safety and security of British nationals is our top priority. Our Embassy in Beijing and consular teams remain in close contact with British nationals in the region to ensure they have the latest information they need.”

The flight was originally intended to take off on Thursday morning, but failed to get clearance from Chinese authorities.

The government is preparing to fly out around 200 UK citizens who have been in Wuhan and the surrounding area.

The plane could land at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, the Press Association reported.

The agency said passengers would then be taken to an NHS facility in the North West for a 14-day quarantine period.

Speaking at a Policy Exchange event in Westminster earlier on Thursday, Mr Raab said officials in the Foreign Office had “been working tirelessly” to get citizens out of Wuhan.

He added: “We’ve been working with the Department of Health flat out, 24/7, to try and make sure we can identify British nationals in Wuhan, get them to a muster point and get them to a flight, a chartered flight in and out.”

It comes after 201 US citizens were airlifted to southern California, where they are currently under observation by medical professionals.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) emergency committee was expected to declare an international public health emergency during its meeting on Thursday.

The organisation has said the “whole world needs to be on alert” over the outbreak, which has killed 170 people so far.

The number of cases has risen to 7,711, surpassing the 5,327 diagnosed with Sars during the 2002-2003 outbreak.

A professor with the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said in a new study that the data they had so far was consistent with coronavirus being initially hosted by bats.

The WHO has said around one in five cases of coronavirus are leading to severe disease.

British Airways has extended its suspension of all flights to and from mainland China until Monday. Virgin Atlantic flights between Heathrow and Shanghai are continuing to operate as scheduled.

Additional reporting by agencies