This article is more than 7 months old

This article is more than 7 months old

Brazilian citizens trapped in Wuhan, the Chinese city at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak, have issued an urgent plea to their president, Jair Bolsonaro, for them to be evacuated.

In a six-minute YouTube video the Brazilians noted how other countries – including the US, the UK, France, Japan and Italy – had already taken steps to rescue their citizens from the city.

On Saturday, Mexico’s foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, announced that 10 of the country’s citizens had also been evacuated from Wuhan – under lockdown since 23 January – with help from the French government.

But Brazilian authorities have yet to take similar steps, with Bolsonaro citing legal obstacles to such an operation because Brazil lacked laws concerning the quarantining of people.

Bolsonaro’s foreign minister, Ernesto Araújo, told BBC Brasil such an evacuation would have to be negotiated with the Chinese government, “but this isn’t something that is obvious and immediate”.

In their YouTube video the group of Brazilian people, which includes two children, urged Bolsonaro to offer “a quick and efficient response, at this urgent moment”. They said: “We are absolutely happy to undergo a period of quarantine and observation once we reach Brazil.”

Brazil’s presidency told BBC Brasil, which first reported the video, it would not comment on the plea to Bolsonaro.

The coronavirus, which the World Health Organization has declared a global public health emergency, has now spread to at least 28 countries, according to the US-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

So far no infections have been confirmed in Latin America but health authorities have reportedly detected 16 suspected cases in Brazil.

According to Brazil’s Jornal Nacional, the government is still considering ways to remove about 40 Brazilian citizens from China and believes they would have to be quarantined on a military base far from any large cities.