China virus death toll hits 82 as 73 test negative in UK – as it happened

Here’s a summary of the latest developments:

• The number of deaths from coronavirus has risen to 82, with at least 2,887 confirmed cases globally, out of which 2,827 are in mainland China.
• Health secretary Matt Hancock has said that “anyone in the UK who has returned from Wuhan in the last 14 days” should self-isolate.
• About 73 people have been tested negative for the virus in the UK, according to the Department of Health and Social Care. Health experts say they would be surprised if the virus does not spread to the UK.
• Wuhan’s mayor, Zhou Xianwang, has admitted the authorities were too slow in how they released information about the virus. Appearing on state TV he said: “We were not sufficiently in time, and we did not make good use of many helpful information.”
• China’s Daily newspaper released images allegedly showing the first wing of a specialist hospital for coronavirus patients built in just 16 hours in Wuhan. However, Twitter users were quick to point out that the shared image of a modular building can be seen elsewhere on the internet, for example here.
  
• Turkey urged its citizens not to travel to China unless necessary to avoid infection with the coronavirus, and Ukraine warned against all but essential travel to the Hubei province.
• The UK government is under pressure to evacuate Britons stranded in the city of Wuhan and the province of Hubei. The Foreign Office said it was “working to make available an option” for British nationals to leave Hubei. Britons stranded in the Wuhan say the UK response has been “pathetic”.
  
• France, Japan, the US and Spain are all attempting to evacuate citizens stranded in China.
• The lunar new year holiday in China has been extended until 2 February across China and to 9 February in Shanghai. Chongqing municipality – one of China’s biggest – has banned inter-province bus travel for its nearly 30 million residents.
• Hong Kong has banned Hubei residents from entering. New coronavirus cases have been reported in Australia, South Korea and Canada. Cambodia and Sri Lanka reported their first case.
• World Heath Organization chiefs have held meetings in Beijing on Monday. The WHO’s director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus last week urged China to ensure lockdown measures are kept “short in duration”.

That’s all for now, we will update the blog later if there are new developments.

Ukraine has advised its citizens against all non-essential travel to the Hubei Province in China, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak.

Ukrainian authorities also advised citizens traveling to China to take precautions, including avoiding contact with people displaying signs of respiratory diseases.

The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) said on Monday that “the immediate health risk from [coronavirus] in the U.S. is currently considered low.”

According to new figures published on its website on Monday, there are 73 people in the US still under investigation, 32 confirmed negative and 5 positive.

“There is an ongoing investigation to determine more about this outbreak. This is a rapidly evolving situation and information will be updated as it becomes available,” a statement said.

The CDC added that reported illnesses in infected people had ranged from little to no symptoms to people being severely ill and dying.

Turkey has urged its citizens not to travel to China unless necessary to avoid infection with the coronavirus.

“It is highly recommended that our citizens do not travel to China unless it is necessary and if they travel there, they should stay away from the regions where the cases are seen, especially in Hubei province,” the Turkish ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement on Monday.

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) has announced that it is working on a coronavirus vaccine, in collaboration with the World Health Organization and several other partners.

CEPI said it will “begin three programmes” aimed at creating an effective vaccine against the virus that has so far killed 82 reported cases.

Health secretary Matt Hancock told MPs that “all possible means” were being used to get in contact with the 1,460 people who have travelled to the UK from Wuhan before the city went on lockdown.

“We’re collaborating with [...] Border Force, with the airlines and with others including universities, schools and cultural organisations to try to make contact,” Hancock said.

China has announced that 60.33bn yuan (6.6bn GBP) will be allocated for the sole purpose of fighting the coronavirus outbreak.

China’s Ministry of Finance and National Health Commission said funds would be used to prop up public health services and epidemic prevention.

France expects to repatriate up to a few hundred of its 800 citizens living in the Wuhan area, though evacuees will have to spend 14 days in quarantine to avoid spreading the virus in France.

Japanese citizens who wish to return home from Wuhan are expected to be flown out via charter flights as early as Tuesday, Reuters reports. Japan’s foreign minister, Toshimitsu Motegi, said about 430 Japanese nationals had been confirmed to be in Hubei province.

The shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, has questioned whether there are enough specialist beds available in the NHS to deal with any potential coronavirus outbreak in the UK.

Ashworth said specialist extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) beds might be needed for the treatment of the virus, and they were already in high demand in the UK, PA reported.

He asked the health secretary, Matt Hancock, to “update the House on how many ECMO beds are currently open and what preparations the NHS is making on that front?”

Hancock responded: “There are four centres that are stood up and ready should there be a need. The centres are in Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospital (London), Liverpool, Newcastle and the Royal Free (London) and there is a further escalation if more beds are So we are ready, but of course we keep all these things under review.”

The total number of confirmed people infected with the coronavirus now stands at 2,887, with 2,827 of these in China. Australia had 4 confirmed cases, Cambodia 1, France 3, Hong Kong 5, Japan 3, Macao 2, Malaysia 3, Nepal 1, Singapore 4, Taiwan 3, Thailand 5, Vietnam 2, South Korea 2, Sri Lanka 1 and the US 5.

• This post was amended on 29 January 2020 to change “Taipei” to Taiwan.