China coronavirus: Canada to evacuate citizens from flu-hit region

Canada will evacuate about 160 of its citizens from the Chinese region that is the epicentre for the new coronavirus, and the government is urging others to avoid non-essential travel to China, a top official said on Wednesday.

“We have 160 Canadians who have requested consular assistance in China. We have secured an aircraft to bring those Canadians who wish to leave back to Canada,” Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said.

Canada is in the process of obtaining diplomatic approval for the flight, and Champagne said he did not know how long it would take to complete the evacuation. Some 250 Canadians have told the government they are in the region, but not everyone has said they want to leave.

Champagne, asked whether any of the Canadians had contracted the virus, said he could not answer that now.

The United States and Japan flew nationals out of the province at the epicentre on Wednesday as the number of deaths leapt by 27 to 133, and the World Health Organisation said there was “deeply concerning” evidence of person-to-person transmission in other countries.

The virus emerged last month in a live wild animal market in the central Chinese province of Hubei, the capital of which is Wuhan.