AFP, WUHAN, ChinaHundreds of Americans and Japanese yesterday escaped the quarantined Chinese city at the center of a coronavirus epidemic aboard charter flights, as the death toll soared to 132 and confirmed infections neared 6,000. Australia said it would evacuate about 600 of its citizens from Wuhan and quarantine them on Christmas Island, which is normally used to detain asylum seekers. Authorities said the number of cases in Hubei Province, the epicenter of the virus of which Wuhan is the capital, soared by more than 800 from the previous day. The number of confirmed cases across the country climbed to 5,974, while the death toll nationwide jumped 26 to 132. Germany now has four confirmed cases, all of them employees at a Bavarian firm recently visited by a Chinese colleague, health officials said.

Source: Taipei Times January 29, 2020 15:56 UTC