JAPAN today airlifted about 200 of its nationals from ground zero of China’s virus epidemic that has killed more than 100 people, and the US readied a similar flight.

More than 50 million people have been locked down in and around Wuhan, the central industrial city where the outbreak first began, in a bid by authorities to stop an infection that has since spread to more than 15 countries.

Thousands of foreigners are among those effectively trapped in the area and numerous countries are devising plans to get their nationals out.

Chinese President Xi Jinping called the virus a “demon” during talks yesterday with the head of the World Health Organisation in Beijing and pledged a “timely” release of updates about the crisis.

But the United States questioned Beijing’s transparency and urged the country to show “more cooperation”, amid mounting global fears about a novel coronavirus that has infected more than 4,500 people in China and dozens more elsewhere.

Japan sent a first plane to collect its citizens from Wuhan. It departed early today and was to arrive at Tokyo’s Haneda airport later in the morning with about 200 people, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported.

Around 650 Japanese nationals in the Wuhan area have said they want to be repatriated.

“We’ll continue to take every possible measure to bring home all people hoping to come back to Japan,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told lawmakers yesterday, according to Jiji Press. 

Officials are aboard the plane to monitor passengers during the return flight but there are no plans to isolate those arriving from Wuhan.

An American charter flight is also due to leave the city today bound for the Los Angeles area.

The plane will carry staffers from the local US consulate as well as some American citizens, who will be asked to reimburse the cost of their flights. – AFP, January 29, 2020.