UK presses China to let dual nationals join coronavirus exodus
The British government is urgently pressing Beijing to allow dual nationals to leave China after public outcry over families being split up during the coronavirus evacuations.
Only British passport holders who do not also hold Chinese nationality are being allowed to leave. The British embassy in Beijing is urging the Chinese to let dependents of British nationals and British-Chinese dual nationals leave too.
“Our priority is to keep British nationals and their family members together and we have urgently raised this with the Chinese authorities,” a Foreign Office spokesperson said on Wednesday.
The foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, raised the issue of dual nationals with his Chinese counterpart on Tuesday, but the Chinese government has maintained its stance.
What is the virus causing illness in Wuhan?
It is a member of the coronavirus family that has never been encountered before. Like other coronaviruses, it has come from animals, or possibly seafood. New and troubling viruses usually originate in animal hosts. Ebola and flu are examples.
What other coronaviruses have there been?
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) and Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (Mers) are both caused by coronaviruses that came from animals.
What are the symptoms of the Wuhan coronavirus?
The virus causes pneumonia. Those who have fallen ill are reported to suffer coughs, fever and breathing difficulties. In severe cases there can be organ failure. As this is viral pneumonia, antibiotics are of no use. The antiviral drugs we have against flu will not work. If people are admitted to hospital, they may get support for their lungs and other organs as well as fluids. Recovery will depend on the strength of their immune system. Many of those who have died are known to have been already in poor health.
Is the virus being transmitted from one person to another?
Human to human transmission has been confirmed by China’s national health commission. As of 27 January, the Chinese authorities had acknowledged more than 2,700 cases and 56 deaths. In the past week, the number of confirmed infections has more than tripled and cases have been found in 13 provinces, as well as the municipalities of Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing and Tianjin. The virus has also been confirmed outside China, in Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, Nepal, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the US, and Vietnam. There have not been any confirmed cases in the UK at present, with the more than 70 people tested for the virus all proving negative. The actual number to have contracted the virus could be far higher as people with mild symptoms may not have been detected. Modelling by WHO experts at Imperial College London suggests there could be as many as 100,000 cases, with uncertainty putting the margins between 30,000 and 200,000.
How worried are the experts?
There were fears that the coronavirus might spread more widely during the week-long lunar new year holidays, which start on 24 January, when millions of Chinese travel home to celebrate, but the festivities have largely been cancelled and Wuhan and other Chinese cities are in lockdown.
At what point should you go to the doctor if you have a cough, say?
Unless you have recently travelled to China or been in contact with someone infected with the virus, then you should treat any cough or cold symptoms as normal. The NHS advises that there is generally no need to visit a doctor for a cough unless it is persistent or you are having other symptoms such as chest pain, difficulty breathing or you feel very unwell.
Should we panic?
No. The spread of the virus outside China is worrying but not an unexpected development. It increases the likelihood that the World Health Organization will declare the outbreak to be a public health emergency of international concern on Thursday evening. The key concerns are how transmissible this new coronavirus is between people and what proportion become severely ill and end up in hospital.
Sarah Boseley Health editor and Hannah Devlin
Families have spoken out about the prospect of being split up during the evacuation process. Sindy Siddle travelled with her husband, Jeff, and nine-year-old daughter, Jasmine, to Hubei province to spend the lunar new year with her family. The family, from Prudhoe, Northumberland, are now facing their “worst nightmare” as Sindy has been told she will not be allowed on the evacuation flight as she has a Chinese passport.
Jeff Siddle said: “Having to leave Sindy in China would be the worst thing that anyone could be put through. How am I going to tell Jasmine that her mum has to stay behind?”
Natalie Francis, 31, a teacher from York, was told that her three-year-old son, who has a Chinese passport, would not be allowed to leave.
Chinese authorities have imposed the same restrictions on other countries evacuating citizens out of the country, including the US. China does not recognise dual nationality, meaning any citizen who wants to get a passport from another country is supposed to give up their Chinese one.
Many people unofficially hold two passports by acquiring a second nationality without informing the Chinese authorities. But in recent years, driven partly by an anti-corruption campaign, there have been greater official efforts to crack down on dual nationals.
Official advice from the UK’s Foreign Office says: “If you are British and Chinese, you are likely to be regarded by the Chinese authorities as a Chinese citizen, even if you travel to China on a British passport. If you enter China on a Chinese passport, we may not be able to help you if you have a problem.”
Along with the US, Japan also began evacuating citizens out of the region on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, British Airways has suspended all flights to and from mainland China. Some other commercial airlines are still operating out of airports in the country, but with Hubei province in lockdown, people in that area have no option for leaving other than evacuation flights.
UK officials have confirmed that evacuated Britons will be placed in quarantine for 14 days upon their return.
