Coronavirus: US, Japan repatriate their citizens while 600 trapped Aussies await approval to leave

The US and Japan repatriate their citizens while 600 trapped Aussies await approval from the communist regime to be evacuated.

The first charter flight from the Chinese city of Wuhan, which was arranged by Japan's government to evacuate its citizens, lands at Haneda airport in Tokyo.

The US, Japan, and South Korea are in the process of repatriating their citizens from the coronavirus-stricken city of Wuhan, while 600 trapped Australians still await approval from the communist regime to be evacuated.

The repatriations come as Australian travelllers are warned to reconsider all travel to China as the virus crisis deepens.

The Associated Press reports that a US charter flight to Wuhan, sent to evacuate US consular officials and other Americans, left the coronavirus-stricken city at dawn on Wednesday.

At least 240 Americans — the majority US State Department staff — were on board the evacuation flight. The passengers will first be sent to Anchorage, Alaska, to be rescreened for the deadly virus. It will then head to Ontario, California.

A plane carrying Japanese nationals evacuated from Wuhan landed at Haneda airport in Tokyo on Wednesday with 206 people on board.

Airport workers wearing face masks immediately began unloading luggage from the aircraft, and several buses pulled up, but there was no immediate sign of passengers leaving the plane.

Earlier, health ministry officials said medical professionals on board the flight would carry out health checks but that there were no plans to quarantine the arriving passengers.

The Japanese flight arrived in Wuhan overnight carrying emergency relief supplies including 15,000 masks, 50,000 pairs of gloves and 8000 protective glasses, the foreign ministry said.

Around four medical officials were also on board to monitor returning passengers.

South Korea have also received approval to land a charter flight for their citizens in Wuhan.

South Korean Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun told a meeting of ministers that their plane could land as early as Thursday.

Governments across the world have been scrambling to evacuate citizens from Wuhan since it went into lockdown last Thursday as the Chinese government sought to contain the spread of the deadly disease.

Scott Morrison revealed on Tuesday he was dispatching a consular team from Shanghai to Wuhan to help negotiate the extraction of 600 Australian citizens — including 100 children — stuck in the provincial capital.

The rescue attempt comes as the virus continues a rapid spread, with 132 deaths, a further 5974 infected and outbreaks confirmed in at least 15 countries, including the US, France, Japan and Australia, where five people with the virus are isolated in hospital in a stable condition.

More than 50 million people are under quarantine in China as President Xi Jinping struggles to manage the crisis.

‘Do not travel’: China travel advice upgraded

Foreign Minister Marise Payne early Wednesday morning announced that the government’s travel advice had been updated.

“We now advise you to ‘reconsider your need to travel’ to China overall, due to the outbreak of novel #coronavirus & travel restrictions by local authorities,” Senator Payne tweeted.

“‘Do not travel’ to #Hubei Province. Contact your doctor for symptoms of respiratory illness.”

We now advise you to ‘reconsider your need to travel’ to China overall, due to the outbreak of novel #coronavirus & travel restrictions by local authorities. ‘Do not travel’ to #Hubei Province. Contact your doctor for symptoms of respiratory illness. https://t.co/8HM6dAGpM7

— Marise Payne (@MarisePayne) January 28, 2020

The upgradedd warning came as Japan and Germany confirmed the first two cases from people who had not travelled to China.

The Japanese case was a tour bus diver who had driven two groups of Chinese tourists ealier this month, according to Health Minister Katsunobu Kato.

The German man was infected by a Chinese colleague visiting from China.

Aussies trapped as US citizens flee virus

Hundreds of Australian citizens remain trapped and facing an uncertain future in the coronavirus-stricken Chinese city of Wuhan, with the US the only country granted approval by Beijing to begin repatriating stranded foreign nationals.

The Australian has confirmed the Department of Foreign ­Affairs and Trade has not received Chinese approval to land a charter plane in Wuhan as Beijing grapples with how to manage the problem of allowing foreigners out of quarantined zones while forcing its citizens to remain.

France, which has 800 citizens in Wuhan, has also said it wants to repatriate those who want to leave by midweek, although it is unclear whether Beijing will ­approve this request.

The Prime Minister said on Tuesday that the consular team would be “essential” to devising the next steps for the trapped Australians and confirmed the national security committee would meet again on Wednesday to “consider some further initiatives … I have just spoken … to Prime Minister (Jacinda) Ardern, and (am) seeking to work closely with the New Zealand government in supporting both their and our nationals who have been caught up in this event”, he said.

“Right now, the Australian government, through our embassy, is looking to deploy, working with the Chinese government, consular officials into Hubei province, into Wuhan. This is essential to assist us as we then consider the further options of support that we can provide to Australian citizens who are in Wuhan and in Hubei province more broadly.”

Government sources told The Australian that Beijing was concerned about allowing Australian-Chinese dual nationals out of quarantine if they arrived in the country on their Chinese passports because it could create the perception it was designating two classes of Chinese citizens.

DFAT is also considering which charter company could be appropriate to send to Hubei pending Chinese approval, given that a private company would have to be prepared to fly into a quarantined area.

Mr Morrison was facing calls to consider the use of Australian air force assets in the region for the repatriation of Australian citizens, with Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick saying the government could organise an RAAF Globemaster from Singapore.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute executive director Peter Jennings told The Australian it might take more public diplomatic pressure from the federal government to get China to agree to the start of charter flights. “We are seeing a China that has not learnt the lessons from SARS and is more focused on information control than helping to manage an international medical crisis,” he said.

“There is nothing we can really do but apply public diplomatic pressure. China does tend to react — though not always well — to diplomatic situations being taken out from behind the scenes and into the public realm. But we can do nothing without the support of the Chinese government from consular access to repatriations.”

DFAT officials are hoping it will take days, not weeks, to organise repatriations, a sentiment shared by leaders around the world. Thailand Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-Cha said Beijing had not yet granted permission for a charter plane to evacuate Thais, and Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Teuku Faizasyah, said it seemed “impossible” to evacuate an estimated 93 Indonesians.