China helps oversea students leave the UK amid coronavirus crisis
China will send out planes to the UK to repatriate oversea students as they scramble to get a ticket home to avoid coronavirus
- China plans to fly overseas students out of the UK tomorrow, official said today
- The decision comes after ‘considering the current epidemic situation in the UK’
- Worried Chinese flock back home as new infections and deaths soar in Europe
- Fears are sparked as China sees a surge of new cases from inbound travellers
- Coronavirus symptoms: what are they and should you see a doctor?
China will arrange flights to the UK tomorrow to help overseas students return home amid the coronavirus pandemic, an official announced today.
Hua Chunying, a spokesperson from China’s Foreign Ministry, said the decision came after ‘considering the current epidemic situation in the UK and the variety of challenges faced by the local Chinese students.’
It comes as overseas Chinese are scrambling to get a ticket to fly home as China is now deemed to be a safe harbour while the new cases and deaths soar in Europe.
International students said that they felt ‘scared’ and ‘helpless’ while staying in Europe during the outbreak due to the inaction of authorities and the public.
China will arrange flights to the UK tomorrow to help overseas students return home amid the coronavirus pandemic, an official announced today. Passengers in line scan the code and fill in the health registration forms in Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport on Monday
Hua Chunying (pictured), a spokesperson from China’s Foreign Ministry, said the decision came after ‘considering the current epidemic situation in the UK and the variety of challenges faced by the local Chinese students’
China has previously sent out planes to Italy and Iran to transfer overseas students back home, Ms Hua said at a press conference in Beijing today.
‘Recently, due to the spread of the epidemic, the number of international flights has been significantly reduced. Some Chinese students have encountered difficulties flying back home,’ Ms Hua added.
‘The Foreign Ministry is actively coordinating with the civil aviation authority and other departments.
‘We will increase the number of temporary flights to the UK on April 2 to facilitate the return of overseas students who have difficulties,’ Ms Hua continued. But the number of such flights is yet to be confirmed.
China has previously sent out planes to Italy and Iran to transfer overseas students back home, Ms Hua said at a press conference in Beijing today. Students are pictured at Cambridge University wearing face masks amid the coronavirus pandemic
Worried oversea students have rushed to flee the coronavirus pandemic after schools across Europe closed campuses and moved classes online to contain the spread of the virus.
‘Europe now feels like China in the early stages of the outbreak,’ said Lin Tiantian, a student at a private music school in Vienna, Austria.
She told MailOnline that she was ‘frightened because no one was wearing face masks in Vienna.’
Another Chinese student studying at the University of Sheffield decided to return home when he felt ‘helpless as there was a lack of actions from the UK government.’
‘People in the UK weren’t paying much attention to the outbreak at the beginning. I felt like it was dangerous to stay in the UK,’ Yao, 23, told MailOnline.
Worried oversea students have rushed to flee the coronavirus pandemic after schools across Europe closed campuses and moved classes online to contain the spread of the virus. Workers wearing protective suits check information of an inbound passenger in Shanghai
Deer Jet, a private jet charter firm, offered to fly people from the UK to China, but at a costly price.
The company charged its customers £21,000 per head to board its 14-seat business plane. Deer Jet confirmed the price with Chinese media.
The luxurious flight was quickly overbooked and the firm has considered to add new journeys, a spokesperson told the Southern Metropolis Daily.
Private travel agencies are also providing flights with Gulfstream G550 private jets which can charge up to £16,000 per seat.
Prices for other economy flights rose up to £3,500 per ticket, almost 10 times higher than the average price from the previous year.
Economy tickets for direct flights from London to Beijing were sold out till the end of April, according to Ctrip, a Chinese travel booking website.
Fears are sparked as China sees a surge of new coronavirus cases from inbound passengers. International flights have been heavily restricted and border controls are tightened in a move to avoid a second wave of the outbreak.
A Chinese teenager studying in the UK has become the first person to bring the novel coronavirus back to Wuhan, the former centre of the pandemic.
The city last week declared that it had largely curbed the outbreak after recording only one new infection in 10 days.
Local health officials today reported the 16-year-old student as its first ‘imported case’ in the city. They claimed he showed no symptoms.
China has so far registered 691 cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, among people entering the country.
Official statistics show that more than a third of the imported cases in the Chinese capital of Beijing were detected among people arriving from Britain, followed by those coming from Spain and Italy.
More than 1,800 people have died of the deadly disease and over 25,000 have been infected in the UK. The global count of confirmed cases is nearing 860,000, with at least 42,310 deaths.
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