Marseille (AFP)
A second plane of returnees from China was in flight Sunday morning to France, confirmed to AFP the prefecture of Bouches-du-Rhône, without specifying the airport of arrival of this flight.
According to a diplomatic source in Brussels, this plane is carrying French and nationals of other nationalities, including nine Belgians, and should go to Belgium after its landing on the military base of Istres, in the Bouches-du-Rhône, where have already landed the first returnees who arrived on Friday.
According to the Belga news agency, the plane which had left Wuhan on the night of Saturday to Sunday must land in Istres "French citizens as well as other European nationals also repatriated". The aircraft will then take to the military airport of Melsbroek, near Brussels, in addition to the Belgians, 11 Danes, 23 Dutch, five Czechs and two Slovaks, according to Belga.
According to the agency, the latter will then be taken in charge by the diplomatic authorities of their countries.
The first returnees - mostly French - who arrived in Istres on Friday have been in confinement for two days in a holiday center in Carry-le-Rouet, a seaside resort close to Marseille. Two of them, who showed symptoms of infection with the new coronavirus when they arrived in France, were hospitalized on Friday. The tests carried out at the Timone hospital in Marseille turned out to be negative.
An increasing number of countries have decided to close their borders with China, while the epidemic has already killed more than 300 people, including the first death recorded outside China, in the Philippines.
© 2020 AFP