Italy Ready To Partially Restore Passenger Flights To China - Chinese Foreign Ministry

Italian authorities have expressed willingness to partially restore passenger air travel to and from China, after flights were suspended at the end of January due to the outbreak of a deadly new strain of coronavirus, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said during a media briefing on Friday

BEIJING (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 07th February, 2020) Italian authorities have expressed willingness to partially restore passenger air travel to and from China, after flights were suspended at the end of January due to the outbreak of a deadly new strain of coronavirus, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said during a media briefing on Friday.

The foreign ministry spokeswoman told reporters that Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Qin Gang and Italian Ambassador to China Luca Ferrari held talks on Thursday, in which the Chinese diplomat urged Italy to overturn, as soon as possible, a ban on direct flights between the two countries.

"The Italian ambassador said that Italy takes China's concerns seriously and, at this stage, it is ready to partially resume passenger flights after requests from Chinese airlines, and [Italy] intends to take action in order to restore normal air travel between the two countries as soon as possible," Hua remarked.

The spokeswoman also praised relations between Rome and Beijing, stating that Italy has provided considerable support for China to combat the spread of the new strain of coronavirus.

"China and Italy are friendly countries, in what has been a different time for China, due to fighting the outbreak of pneumonia caused by a new type of coronavirus, Italy expressed its support and assistance in the form of goods to fight the epidemic," Hua stated.

She also made reference to comments made by Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who on Tuesday urged his country's population to not discriminate against Chinese people amid the outbreak of the virus, which has already spread to Europe.

"Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has called verbal and physical discrimination against China because of the coronavirus a form of ignorance. All this demonstrates Italy's friendly attitude to the people of China," Hua stated.

Italian authorities first suspended flights to Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak, on January 23. Eight days later, Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza announced a decision to cancel all flights to mainland China.

More than 50 Italian nationals who were evacuated from Wuhan on Sunday evening remain in quarantine at a military base near Rome. There are so far two confirmed cases of infection in Italy, and the country this past Friday declared a six-month state of emergency due to the outbreak.

China first detected the novel strain of coronavirus in Wuhan in late December. It has since spread within China and to more than 20 countries. So far, over 630 people have died after contracting the virus, which has already infected over 31,500 globally. Last week, the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency in light of the outbreak.