Photo/Illutration Medical workers in protective gear stand near an ambulance in Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province on Jan. 26. (Chinatopix via AP)

Japan announced plans to charter a special flight to the central Chinese city of Wuhan on Jan. 28 to rescue hundreds of Japanese nationals trapped there due to the lockdown over the coronavirus outbreak.

“As soon as we finish coordinating with the Chinese government, we will bring home all the Japanese there who wish to return to Japan through all possible means, including chartering aircraft,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said late Jan. 26.

As of Jan. 24, about 710 Japanese citizens were residing the Hubei provincial capital of Wuhan, which has a population of 11 million and is now closed to the outside world, according to the Foreign Ministry.

Many Japanese businesses, such as Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co., operate joint ventures with Chinese partners in Wuhan, an industrial and commercial hub.

On Jan. 26, the Foreign Ministry issued a statement on its website calling on Japanese in Wuhan and elsewhere in Hubei province to register their passport number, contact details and other necessary information if they wish to return to Japan aboard the chartered flight.

The province has been effectively isolated since late last week as Chinese authorities try to contain the spread of the respiratory infection that has already claimed dozens of lives.

“I really appreciate the rescue plan,” a Japanese graduate school student in Wuhan told the The Asahi Shimbun on Jan. 26. “It will be a relief to my family back in Japan.”

The student said he had planned to catch a flight to Japan a few days ago, but it was canceled in the transportation shutdown ordered by Chinese authorities on Jan. 23 to stop the virus from spreading.

Honda said most of its 30 or so Japanese employees and their family members will return to Japan on the charter flight, but several will remain in Wuhan on standby factory maintenance duties.

The company's factories in Wuhan were originally scheduled to be closed during the Lunar New Year holiday, which started Jan. 24 and ends Jan. 30.

On Jan. 27, the Chinese government said the death toll from the virus had risen to 80. The number of infected people stood at 2,744 across China, with an additional 5,794 feared to be infected.

Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi consulted by phone with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, on the evening of Jan. 26. Wang fully understood Japan's concerns for the welfare of its citizens, Motegi said.

He also told a Jan. 27 session of the Lower House Budget Committee his ministry has confirmed that about 560 Japanese were in Hubei province.

The government decided to mount a rescue operation as Wuhan is at the center of the outbreak and remains virtually sealed from the rest of the world. Public transportation services have been suspended and entry to and from the city is forbidden.

The situation there warrants a rescue under government action plans in the event of an outbreak of a dangerous infectious disease, such as a new type of flu, in another country where Japanese are residing.

The government flew a chartered aircraft in January 2011 to transfer Japanese tourists to Italy from Egypt, where the security had sharply deteriorated. In April 2004, a special flight was dispatched to collect three Japanese nationals who were released after being taken hostage in Iraq.

Japan's health ministry reported its fourth case of infection on Jan. 26. The case concerns a man in his 40s from Wuhan who arrived in Japan on vacation.

When he arrived in Japan on Jan. 22, the man did not display any symptoms pointing to infection.

But he ran a fever the following day and was confirmed to be infected Jan. 26 by the National Institute of Infectious Diseases.

The man is in a stable condition, according to the ministry.

(Kotaro Ono and Narumi Ota contributed to this article.)