, as several countries prepared to evacuate their citizens from a quarantined city at the outbreak's epicentre.
A worker wearing a hazardous materials suit takes the temperature of a passenger at the entrance to a subway station in Beijing. The US State Department said on Sunday it was arranging a flight from Wuhan to San Francisco for consulate staff and other Americans in the city. The health emergency has overwhelmed Wuhan's hospitals with patients, prompting authorities to send hundreds of medical reinforcements, including military doctors, and start construction on two field hospitals., Wuhan's mayor Zhou Xianwang predicted on Sunday, based on the number currently undergoing observation in hospital.Speaking at a press conference and wearing a face mask, Zhou said the city's medical staff were"very strained and tired".
The Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has determined that a Wuhan market where animals including rats, snakes and hedgehogs were reportedly sold is"highly relevant" to the outbreak, state news agency Xinhua reported on Monday.until the emergency is over, but conservationists complain that Beijing has previously failed to deliver on such pledges.