The death toll from the coronavirus spreading across China has risen to at least 106, as the United States and other countries prepared to fly their citizens out of the locked-down city at the centre of the outbreak.
Some 17 cities with more than 50 million people have been placed on lockdown, as the number of cases surged to 4,515 on Monday from 2,835 the previous day. Cases have also been confirmed in Germany, the United States, Thailand, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Nepal, France, Canada, Australia and Sri Lanka.
British ministers have said they are working to get Britons out of Hubei province in China, with Boris Johnson insisting the government is doing “everything we can”.
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The US Consulate in Wuhan, where authorities cut off most access on 22 January in an effort to contain the disease, was preparing to fly its diplomats and some other Americans out of the city.
Japan, France, South Korea, Mongolia and other governments also planned evacuations.
Matt Hancock has called on more than 1,000 people who have travelled to the UK from Wuhan to “self-isolate” in order to stop its spread, Vincent Wood reports.
The health secretary urged those who had passed through the city where the outbreak began to isolate quarantine themselves for 14 days.
China’s death toll from the coronavirus has risen by 25 to at least 106, with a national total of 4,515 cases, according to the National Health Commission.
It said 976 people were in serious condition.
The death toll includes the first death in Beijing, the Chinese capital, and 24 more fatalities in Hubei province, where the first illnesses from the newly identified coronavirus occurred in December.