FILE PHOTO: Spain's Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya arrives to attend the first cabinet meeting at the Moncloa Palace in Madrid, Spain, January 14, 2020. REUTERS/Susana Vera

MADRID (Reuters) - The Spanish government is working with China and the European Union to repatriate Spanish nationals from the Wuhan area of China amid concerns over coronavirus, Spain’s Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya said on Monday.

“We’re working ... with our consulate in Beijing, and officials in China and the European Union to repatriate around 20 Spaniards in Wuhan, Hubei, the epicenter of the coronavirus. We will continue to update on any advances,” Gonzalez Laya wrote on Twitter.

She did not provide further details.

The British Foreign Office said on Monday that it was working to offer British nationals in Hubei province an option to leave, one day after France said it expected to evacuate hundreds of its 800 citizens from the area.

“French citizens will be repatriated by airplane to France, with the agreement of Chinese authorities. This will take place midweek,” French Health Minister Agnes Buzyn told reporters on Sunday. Evacuees will have to spend 14 days in quarantine to avoid spreading the virus in France.

The U.S. State Department said on Sunday it would evacuate personnel from its Wuhan consulate to the United States and will offer a limited number of seats to private U.S. citizens.

The coronavirus outbreak that began in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, in the province of Hubei, has killed 81 people in China so far and infected more than 2,750 globally, most of them in China.