Europe evacuates citizens from China, Russia shuts border

Passengers arrive at Heathrow Airport in London after the last British Airways flight from China touched down in the UK following an announcement that the airline was suspending all flights to and from mainland China with immediate effect amid the escalating coronavirus crisis (Steve Parsons/PA via AP)

LISBON – European countries stepped up efforts today (Thursday) to contain the virus sweeping through central China, sending a chartered plane there to evacuate hundreds of citizens, scrapping more commercial flights to Chinese destinations and closing Russia’s long border with the Asian giant.
Italian authorities kept some 7,000 people on board a cruise ship for nearly a day while they checked one passenger for a possible infection.
An A380 evacuation flight took off Thursday morning from a former Portuguese military airport at Beja, 200 kilometers southeast of Lisbon, carrying just its pilots and crew.
Captain Antonios Efthymiou said the flight was going first to Paris, to pick up a team of doctors and extra crew, before heading to Hanoi and then China. He told Portuguese media it would bring back about 350 Europeans. He said the crew would take special medical precautions but did not elaborate.
China has reported 170 deaths and at least 7,800 infections have been confirmed worldwide from the virus that emerged last month in the central city of Wuhan. Sports, transport and cultural events have been cancelled across the country and over 50 million people are under a government lockdown in central China.
In Europe, there have been 10 confirmed cases of the virus so far: five in France, four in Germany and one in Finland.
In Moscow, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin issued a decree ordering the temporary closure of the country’s border with China, which extends for 4,200 kilometers (2,600 miles). In addition, all train traffic between the two countries, except for one train connecting Moscow and Beijing, was stopped Thursday.
Britain said its delayed repatriation flight for 200 U.K. citizens in Wuhan would leave there on Friday, with the returning Britons quarantined for 14 days upon arrival. The U.K.-government chartered plane had been due to return earlier but it was delayed because permissions form the Chinese government had not come through.
Italian health authorities did not allow 6,000 passengers and 1,000 crew aboard a cruise ship docked north of Rome to get off after a passenger from Macau came down with flu-like symptoms.
The Czech Republic announced it was stopping issuing visas to Chinese citizens due to the outbreak. More than 600,000 Chinese tourists are estimated to have visited the Czech Republic last year, especially its old-world capital city of Prague.
On the retail front, Swedish furniture and home goods retailer IKEA announced all its stores in mainland China would remain closed to protect customers and staff from the outbreak. The stores are a favorite haunt of Chinese city dwellers, both for shopping and for just hanging out.
More European airlines announced halts in service to China, all citing efforts “to protect the health and security of customers and staff.”
Air France suspended all its regular passenger flights to and from China until Feb. 9. The French carrier had already suspended flights to Wuhan, the epicenter of the viral outbreak, and reduced traffic to Beijing and Shanghai. Air France said it will run special flights starting Thursday to bring back some customers and employees from Beijing and Shanghai.
Scandinavian Airlines announced it was halting all its flights to Beijing and Shanghai beginning Friday and running through Feb. 9th. SAS has 12 regular weekly flights from Scandinavia to China.
Spain’s Iberia national airline halted the three return flights a week it runs between Madrid and Shanghai due to the virus, a move it said would continue through February.
Finnish national airline Finnair said it has stopped accepting new bookings on its flights to mainland China.
Those announcements followed earlier moves to halt or reduce flights to China by other European airlines, including British Airways, Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Swiss and KLM.
Norway, which is not part of the EU, said it was working with other European countries to get Norwegians out of China.
The virus comes from the coronavirus family, which includes the common cold but also more severe illnesses, such as SARS and MERS.
MDT/AP