France sends third plane to Wuhan to pick up citizens

The flight will pick up several dozen people that are still in the “red zone” in Wuhan, where the new coronavirus originated.

None of the passengers is ill or has tested positive for Covid-19, but the group will be accompanied by a medical team on board, and will be submitted to a variety of health tests upon arrival in France.

The flight is set to land on Friday February 21. The passengers will be kept in quarantine for 14 days after arrival.

A reporter for national news service FranceInfo said: “We do not know exactly where [they will be quarantined], but it will be at a smaller holiday village.”

Two planes have already repatriated French citizens - along with some citizens of other countries - from the Chinese city.

Passengers of the first flight were quarantined in a holiday centre in Carry-le-Rouet (Bouches-du-Rhône, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur), for 14 days. They have since been permitted to leave.

Passengers from the second flight were quarantined at firefighting school l’Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Sapeurs-Pompiers (Ensosp) in Aix-en-Provence, and some were housed in Carry-le-Rouet.

In Aix-en-Provence, 35 other people who arrived in France via London (UK) on February 9 will be kept in quarantine until February 23.

More than 2,000 people have now died from the virus in China, Chinese health authorities said, but added that the daily rate of infection in the country is dropping.