Deaths rise to 132 in China outbreak as foreigners leave

Countries began evacuating their citizens Jan. 29 from the Chinese city hardest-hit by an outbreak of a new virus that has killed 132 people and infected more than 6,000 on the mainland and abroad.

A Japanese flight carrying evacuees home included four people with coughs and fevers. The three men and one woman were taken to a Tokyo hospital on separate ambulances for treatment and further medical checks.

It wasn't immediately known whether they were infected with the new type of coronavirus that appeared in the central city of Wuhan in December. Its symptoms, including cough and fever and in severe cases pneumonia, are similar to many other illnesses.

China's latest figures cover the previous 24 hours and add 26 to the number of deaths, 25 of which were in the central province of Hubei and its capital, Wuhan.
The 5,974 cases on the mainland marked a rise of 1,459 from the previous day, although that rise is a smaller increase than the 1,771 new cases reported on Jan. 27. Dozens of infections have been confirmed abroad as well.

The United Arab Emirates, home to long-haul carriers Emirates and Etihad, confirmed its first case on Jan. 29 in a person who had come from Wuhan, the state-run news agency reported.

Chartered planes carrying evacuees home to Japan and the United States left Wuhan early on Jan. 29 as other countries planned similar evacuations from areas China has shut down to try to contain the virus.
The lockdown of 17 cities has trapped more than 50 million people in the most far-reaching disease control measures ever imposed.

A plane carrying Americans who had been in Wuhan left for Anchorage, Alaska, where they will be rescreened for the virus. U.S. hospitals are prepared to treat or quarantine people...