Coronavirus: Britons in China want more support from UK

Canadian Lauren Williams and her British husband Tom are trapped in Wuhan with a baby on the way

Britons in parts of China affected by the new coronavirus have criticised the lack of government support for returning home.

UK citizens in Wuhan and surrounding areas said that while other countries had organised evacuations, they had been given little information.

The US and Japan are sending planes to Wuhan to evacuate their citizens.

Downing Street says the Foreign Office is "urgently exploring options" for British nationals to leave the region.

The new coronavirus has caused more than 100 deaths, spreading across China and to at least 16 countries around the world - but there are no confirmed cases in the UK.

So far 97 people have tested negative, the Department of Health said, and there have been no positive results.

• Beyond Today: What it's like to live in a city under lockdown

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Up to 300 British people are thought to be trapped in the city of Wuhan and Hubei province, where the outbreak is believed to have started and which is now under strict travel restrictions.

In postings on local social media, the Foreign Office called on UK citizens who want to leave the area to contact its 24-hour number before Wednesday to add their names to a list.

Transport may come quickly and suddenly, officials warned.

Kharn Lambert's grandmother arrived in Wuhan for a short visit, but is now unable to return home. Mr Lambert told the BBC her medication was running low.

He said: "Why is it possible that the American government, the French government, the Japanese government, can make these deals with the Chinese authorities to get their citizens out of the city - but the UK government can't?"

Canadian Lauren Williams is expecting a baby with her British husband, Tom, in a month. She said she was worried that it is not currently known how the virus might affect a pregnant woman.

Mr Williams said: "Just advice would be great and very clear direction about what's happening so we can make plans."

Wuhan is in lockdown, with travel out of the city restricted

A Downing Street spokesman said details of plans for British citizens to leave Hubei province "are being finalised" and the Foreign Office will confirm them "as soon as they can".

Asked about plans to repatriate Britons, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told the BBC: "We are working on it."

One of the issues facing the UK government was identifying exactly how many British citizens needed to be repatriated, said Mr Shapps.

He said: "One of the things we're asking people to do is to contact the consulate there to make them aware."

The consulate is gathering all the information on British citizens in the area "in order to help repatriate where appropriate", Mr Shapps said.

But Jason Neil and Sophie Hunt, who moved to Wuhan to teach English and have now spent more than five days in their apartment, said they contacted the embassy and received little response.

"We have contacted the embassy, we've emailed them and tried to ring them, and we got a really useless automated email response back from the embassy, saying not to go to Hubei," said Ms Hunt.

"We're like, we're already here."

Teachers Sophie Hunt and Jason Neal say the UK consulate gave them little help

On Monday, the Foreign Office said it was "working to make an option available for British nationals to leave Hubei province due to the heavy travel restrictions and increased difficulty of accessing consular or medical assistance".

"The safety and security of British nationals is our number one priority," a spokesman said.

Kathleen Bell, who has lived in Wuhan for two years, said the city is now a "surreal" place to be.

"Everything is in lockdown, the bridges are closed as well, so there's not really a lot of movement," she told BBC Radio 5 Live.

She said some people had ventured out to walk the streets after several days of confinement.

"Yesterday evening, people were calling from their windows singing to each other in the tall buildings," she said.

Leaving the city is not easy, with the Chinese government requiring a two-week quarantine period for any evacuees, Ms Bell said.

A Twitter video shows a man, top (wearing black), walking into an ambulance and a medic in a protective suit

One man in the UK was filmed as he left his home in Harborne, Birmingham, on Monday, on his way to hospital.

A video posted on Twitter by a neighbour shows him being escorted to an ambulance by a medic wearing a protective suit.

The woman who filmed it wrote: "What have I just witnessed outside my flat in Harborne #coronavirus."

Earlier, Public Health England in the West Midlands said blood tests on a Harborne man were ongoing, but it later said it was not in a position to comment on individual cases and would not provide rolling updates on tests.

It said testing for coronavirus involved taking samples from the patient's nose, throat and deeper respiratory tract and sending them to a laboratory which could provide a result within 24 hours.it later said it was not in a position to comment on individual cases and would not provide rolling updates on tests.

"There are no confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK," it stressed.

Learn more about the new virus

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• Wuhan profiled: The city now in lockdown

• In detail: Follow all our coverage here

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Monday that anyone from the UK who had returned from Wuhan in the last two weeks was being asked to "self-isolate, to stay indoors and to avoid contact with other people".

He said that although coronaviruses are not usually spread by people who are not displaying symptoms, officials cannot be "100% certain" that this is the case with the new virus.

More than 1,400 people have returned to the UK from Wuhan since 10 January and are being asked to isolate themselves for 14 days from the date they left China.

Only 10% of people entering the UK from the Chinese city supplied an email address to their airline and have been contacted with advice on what to do if they feel ill.

Mr Hancock said Public Health England officials are trying to trace the others.