All British nationals in China have been advised to leave the country to avoid contracting coronavirus.
The death toll in mainland China from the coronavirus outbreak has risen to 425, with the total number of cases now standing at 20,438, Chinese officials said on Tuesday.
Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, said today the “safety and security of British people” was the government’s “top priority”.
“As such, we now advise British nationals in China to leave the country if they can, to minimise their risk of exposure to the virus,” he said.
“Where there are still British nationals in Hubei province who wish to be evacuated, we will continue to work around the clock to facilitate this.”
The British Embassy in Beijing announced on Monday that the last flights from China to the UK for British nationals were set to leave this week.
The Foreign Office amended its travel advice after Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he expects more cases of the virus to be diagnosed in the UK.
“We haven’t seen the peak of the coronavirus by a long stretch and we expect more cases in the UK,” he said.
“We have a full plan in place to treat all those who have symptoms and test positively for coronavirus and we are working with international partners both to slow the spread and also to do the research that we need to do to find a vaccine.”
British officials are trying to trace 239 people who flew from the Chinese city of Wuhan to the UK before travel restrictions associated with the coronavirus came into force.
Efforts to track down and assess the travellers, who left Wuhan after the virus emerged, began last week as the crisis intensified, leading British Airways and Virgin Atlantic to suspend UK-China flights.
A total of 94 UK nationals and family members have been evacuated to Britain from Wuhan, the city in Hubei province at the epicentre of the outbreak, on two flights which arrived on Friday and Sunday.
The evacuees are now undergoing 14 days in quarantine at Arrowe Park Hospital on the Wirral.
The British Embassy in Beijing announced on Monday that the last flights from China to the UK for British nationals were set to leave this week.