The Japanese Health Ministry has confirmed a fourth case of infection by China's coronavirus, public broadcaster NHK reported.
The case was confirmed in a citizen of Wuhan who had arrived in Japan on 22 January on holidays, according to the NHK. The man was hospitalised in Aichi prefecture, central Japan, and tested positive for the virus, the report said.
According to the public broadcaster NHK, the Japanese foreign ministry is in contact with relevant Chinese ministries in order to arrange a charter flight to the quarantined Wuhan to return home its supposedly 700 nationals in the region.
Abe said the government worked through the weekend to contact its citizens in the Hubei province and establish their readiness to leave.
The Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has started developing a vaccine against the new deadly coronavirus, the official China Daily newspaper reported earlier in the day, citing a health official.
Over 2,000 confirmed coronavirus cases have since been registered across the country, with the death toll now standing at 56. Confirmed cases of the new coronavirus have been also recorded in Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, Nepal, France, the United States, Malaysia, Australia and Canada.