Croatian citizens wanting to leave the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus epidemic, have been offered evacuation organised by partners from the European Union, the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs stated on Tuesday.

The Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in Beijing is in constant contact with local Chinese authorities and European partners, as well as with the four Croatian citizens who are in Wuhan, the ministry told state agency Hina on Tuesday.

“Croatian citizens wanting to leave Wuhan have been offered evacuation in the organisation of EU partners, and we have stayed in contact on that matter,” the ministry says.

They add from the ministry that the Croatian Embassy in Beijing continues to inform Croatian citizens in Wuhan on all measures and options for leaving the city and that the embassy will be at their disposal to ensure their return home goes well.

Given the increasing number of countries planning to evacuate their nationals from Wuhan, the ministry answered the question whether such a solution had been offered to Croatian nationals.

The embassy in Beijing is in contact with other Croatian citizens in the People’s Republic of China and is available to them for any kind of consular assistance and support, the ministry adds.

The coronavirus outbreak started in Wuhan, a city of 11 million inhabitants in central China, and has spread throughout the province, which has become a sort of a quarantine.

None of the 106 deaths occurred outside of China, and all but six occurred in Wuhan, where the virus appeared last month.

Numerous countries started evacuating their nationals who will spend 14 days in quarantine upon returning home.

The total number of patients diagnosed with this infection in China has grown from 2,835 on Monday to 4,515 on Tuesday, the National Health Commission said.

The deadly novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV, which appeared in China, will infect at least tens of thousands of people and the outbreak will carry on for several months, experts estimated on Tuesday based on the first available data.