Dominic Raab has confirmed that 11 evacuees will be flown to the UK from the Chinese city at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak on Sunday, on a French-chartered plane, after they missed a previous evacuation flight on Friday.

The foreign secretary said the government was doing everything in its power to help Britons who wished to leave but that the process posed serious challenges.

“We’ll do everything we can to make sure that those that still want to leave, give them the opportunity to do so,” he said on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show.

“The challenge that we’ve got, and the Chinese have got frankly, is to contain the virus but also then to lift out people that want to come back home and we’re doing that as sensitively and as effectively as we can.”

The second group of evacuees - made up of British nationals and family members - boarded a French flight and will also be brought to Arrowe Park Hospital in the Wirral where they will spend 14 days in quarantine, Raab said.

Mr Raab had said 11 British nationals would be returning but the Foreign Office later confirmed the group includes a mix of British nationals and some of their relatives.

He said the Government is doing all it can to help Britons in Wuhan leave if they want to.

Raab’s comments came as the Philippines reported the first death from coronavirus outside China, where 304 have died since it was first detected, and the first people to be tested positive for the virus in the UK continue to be treated at a special unit at a hospital in Newcastle.

The Department of Health on Sunday confirmed 266 tests have been carried out in the UK for coronavirus and that 264 have been confirmed negative.

The UK government had been expecting that 200 people would be on Friday’s chartered flight, but when it left Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, only 83 Britons were onboard.

Earlier, on Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday, Raab said those flown back would join the other 83 evacuees in quarantine conditions in Arrowe Park, on the Wirral in north-west England.

He said: “There is a French flight that is expected back in Europe today, and that will carry some UK nationals. I’m grateful for the cooperation that we’ve had [from] the French authorities. It’s a good example of how even though we leave the EU will be cooperating with our friends and partners very effectively.”

Asked why more people were not flown out on Friday, Raab listed some of the difficulties UK diplomats have faced negotiating with Chinese officials. He said: “The challenge has been immense. You’ll know that Hubei province is nine times the size of Wales.

“We had a job to do to get permissions for the charter flight going in, then the permissions to get the roadblocks eased for the UK nationals to get to the muster points. We had four coaches put on, and we delayed the original flight by three hours on the tarmac to try and make sure as many people could get out that wanted to get out.”

He added: “As this flight with the French shows, we will continue to work for those that didn’t make the first flight to give them the cooperation, the support and reassurance that we can help them as best we can.”

Britons still stranded in Wuhan have said confusing messages from officials contributed to them missing Friday’s evacuation flight home.

Chris Hill, 38, said he had refused to board the flight back to the UK because because the Foreign Office could not confirm whether his four-year-old daughter, a Chinese national, would be allowed to join him.

Hill, from Sunderland, said his wife of 11 years could not travel as she was needed to work in a hospital in Wuhan, and he could not consider leaving his family. He criticised the planning of the flight, saying he was given only seven minutes’ notice to arrive at the airport.

“There’s no cars, there’s no taxis, anything, and the FCO say, ‘Oh we’ll pick you up from Wuhan Tianhe airport but you have to make your own way there.’ That gives me a very bad taste in my mouth. It’s just bad planning.”

One British man in the city said he had been offered a place on a French evacuation flight, but told of his fears of being left stranded in the city after deciding he could not leave his wife, who is a nurse, behind when she could not get the time off work

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said: “The government is in touch with British nationals who remain in Wuhan, and are doing everything we can to bring them home as safely and quickly as possible.”

Meanwhile, more than 240 calls have been made to a dedicated helpline in York after a student at the city’s university was confirmed as having the coronavirus.

The University of York set up a call centre on Saturday after confirming one of the first two confirmed UK cases of the virus was a student.

In a statement on Sunday, University of York vice-chancellor Professor Charlie Jeffery and representatives from the Chinese Students and Scholars Association said the student did not attend a university Chinese New Year celebration or recent graduation ceremonies.

They said as soon as the student’s relative showed symptoms, they contacted emergency services and were both taken to the specialist medical facility in Newcastle, where they were diagnosed with the virus.

A spokesman said the university remains open as usual and stressed that it will continue to monitor the situation.

He added: “We reiterate Public Health England’s assurance that the risk level to our staff and students remains low.”

