Final evacuation flight from Wuhan due back in UK

London: The final flight with 200 evacuees from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the novel coronavirus outbreak, is set to arrive in the UK on Sunday, according to the Foreign Office.

In a statement on Saturday night, the Office said the flight, carrying government staff, military medics, UK citizens and foreign nationals, will land at the RAF Brize Norton, about 121 km from London, reports the BBC.

The evacuees will be housed at Kents Hill Park conference centre and hotel, where they will remain in isolation for two weeks - the incubation period of the virus - to ensure they are not infected.

They will have access to Netflix, magazines, books, baby equipment, children's toys and games, mobile phones, and tablets for reading, games, and browsing the Internet, the National Health Services said.

Clothing and toiletries have already been laid out for their arrival.

The flight, which took off at 7.20 p.m. on Saturday, is the second and last flight chartered by the UK Foreign Office out of Wuhan, said the BBC.

More than 100 UK nationals and family members have already been evacuated to Britain on flights chartered by the UK and other countries.

They were being held in quarantine at Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral.

The flight follows the decision by the Foreign Office on February 4 advising all Britons to leave China if they can.

British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have suspended all flights to and from mainland China, while other carriers continue to operate flights between the UK and China.

In the UK, the Department of Health and Social Care said that 686 people have been tested for coronavirus as of Saturday afternoon, with three cases confirmed.

Outside of China, 288 cases have been confirmed in 24 countries, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). All the fatal cases have been in China and Hong Kong apart from one in the Philippines.

In China, the death toll rose to 811 on Sunday, surpassing that of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic in 2003.

Those infected with the coronavirus - 37,198 in mainland China alone - far exceed the 8,437 SARS cases that were recorded worldwide during its outbreak.

The SARS epidemic claimed 774 lives worldwide between 2002-2003, according to the WHO.