Contingency plan to evacuate Poles from China amid virus threat

The Polish foreign ministry is drawing up a contingency plan to evacuate Poles from the Chinese province of Hubei, where the city at the epicentre of a coronavirus outbreak is located.

Medical staff use an infrared thermal imager to check the temperature of passengers at Nanjing South Railway station in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China, 27 January.

Photo: EPA/SU YANG

Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz told public broadcaster Polish Radio that none of the 20 or so Polish citizens in Hubei showed signs of illness.

“None of these people are sick. These people have been instructed how to proceed in order to avoid possible infection,” he said.

Among the Poles in Hubei province are students on a study visit. They are in constant contact with a Polish consul, Polish Radio’s IAR news agency has reported.

Poland’s chief sanitary inspector, Jarosław Pinkas, said there have been no cases of the coronavirus in this country yet.

He added that procedures have been implemented to ensure security in case it appears in Poland.

The fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak has killed over 80 people so far. It has triggered alerts in countries around the world and rattled global markets.

The epicentre of the outbreak is Wuhan, a city of 11 million in Hubei province.

 (pk)

Source: IAR