US to evacuate its citizens from Wuhan, China

The United States is arranging a charter flight on Sunday to bring its citizens and diplomats back from the Chinese city of Wuhan, epicentre of the outbreak of a new coronavirus, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

The plane, with around 230 people, will carry diplomats from the U.S. consulate as well as U.S. citizens and their families, the Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the operation.

Washington was given approval for the operation from China's Foreign Ministry and other government agencies following negotiations in recent days, the newspaper said.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Beijing said that on Thursday, the State Department had ordered the departure of family members and all U.S. government employees at its Wuhan consulate, but declined to comment on the report that other U.S. citizens would be evacuated from the city.

The decision to move U.S. consulate staff and families was due to the outbreak of the coronavirus "and logistical disruptions stemming from restricted transportation and overwhelmed hospitals in the city of Wuhan," the spokesperson said in a statement emailed to Reuters.

"The consulate general, in collaboration with local authorities, plans to set up a bus service to allow French nationals ... and their Chinese and foreign spouses and children to travel from Wuhan to Changsha," the letter said, according to the Chinese newspaper.

Russia is consulting with China about possibly evacuating Russian citizens from the Chinese city of Wuhan and Hubei province, the centre of an outbreak of a new flu-like virus, the RIA news agency cited the Russian embassy as saying on Saturday.

There are no Russians infected with the new coronavirus, RIA quoted the embassy's press attache in China as saying.