Fifty-two out of 218 visitors from Wuhan, the epicenter of a new coronavirus outbreak, has left Da Nang for China as of Saturday, according to a local travel company’s executive.

The 218 Wuhan visitors entered Da Nang on Wednesday, before China shut down the city, Nguyen Minh Xoang, general director of the Hai Van Cat travel firm, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Saturday morning.

The firm has helped 52 of them come back to China, Xoang said.

Vietnam has ceased flights to and from Wuhan so the 52 visitors had to follow different routes to get back to China.

“We have cooperated with foreign partners in helping the tourists return to their country by various means,” Xoang said.

“The remaining Wuhan visitors are expected to go home from now until the end of January 27.”

Da Nang health officials have maintained that the 218 visitors had shown no unusual health signs.

The Hai Van Cat travel company operates three charter flights taking around 600 tourists from Wuhan to Da Nang on a weekly basis.

But all flights have been suspended because China has locked down Wuhan, a city of 11 million in the central Chinese province of Hubei, where the official death toll from the pneumonia-causing coronavirus jumped on Saturday to 41 from 26 one day earlier.

The Da Nang Department of Health has announced two hotlines to receive reports of suspected coronavirus cases, which are 0905141567 and 090567468.

The first number is handled by Dr. Nguyen Tien Hong, deputy director of the health department, while Ton That Thanh, director of the Da Nang Center for Disease Control, is in charge of the other.

A pneumonia outbreak, caused by a new strain of the coronavirus family that caused SARS and MERS, first surfaced in Wuhan City in December 2019.

The total number of confirmed cases in China now stands at 1,287, Reuters quoted the latest figures from the country’s National Health Commission.

The virus has spread to the U.S., France, Australia, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, and others.

Two Chinese citizens are being treated at Cho Ray Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City after their coronavirus infection was announced on Thursday.

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