LONDON 22 Jan (ANA) - The UK is to begin monitoring flights arriving from China, as part of a series of precautionary measures after the spread of a new coronavirus.

 

The measures, to be announced by the health secretary later, will apply to flights from Wuhan to London Heathrow.

 

Public Health England has upgraded the risk to the UK population from very low to low, the transport secretary said.

 

Chinese authorities have advised people to stop travel into and out of Wuhan, the city at the heart of the outbreak.

 

They also admitted the country is now at the "most critical stage" of prevention and control.

 

So far, there have been 440 confirmed cases and nine people have died.

 

Most cases have been in Wuhan and Chinese authorities believe the virus originated from a seafood market that "conducted illegal transactions of wild animals".

 

However it has also spread to other Chinese cities and a handful of cases have been identified abroad, including in Japan and the United States. There have been no cases in Britain.(ANA)

FA/ANA/22 January 2020-----