The government’s advice for British citizens to leave China because of coronavirus is excessive, the Chinese ambassador to the UK has said.



Liu Xiaoming said the number of cured patients was rising, adding that his country was “fully confident” of beating the virus.



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The comments came after the Foreign Office urged all Brits to leave the country to minimise the risk of exposure to coronavirus.



“We now advise British nationals in China to leave the country if they can, to minimise their risk of exposure to the virus,” said foreign secretary Dominic Raab.



“Where there are still British nationals in Hubei province who wish to be evacuated, we will continue to work around the clock to facilitate this.”



The UK said it will charter another emergency flight on Sunday to evacuate British nationals.



All citizens evacuated from the company will be held in isolation at Arrowe Park hospital on the Wirral for two weeks as a precaution.



The death toll from the disease, which started in the Chinese city of Wuhan, has now risen above 560, and the outbreak has spread to more than 20 countries.

Chinese authorities have put Wuhan in lockdown, and have called for all infected residents to be rounded up and placed in quarantine.

Coronavirus has also roiled markets, which have swung on the latest developments in the outbreak.

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The FTSE 100 and European stocks yesterday staged a comeback after opening in the red following reports that scientists may have made a breakthrough in finding a cure.

Sky News reported that scientists at Imperial College London said they have made a significant breakthrough in reducing part of the normal development time of a possible vaccine from “two to three years to just 13 days”.

