The Japanese government said Tuesday that it will allow Japanese nationals evacuated from China's Hubei Province amid the coronavirus outbreak to return to their homes in Japan earlier than previously projected.

The government decided on the move as the incubation period of the virus, which causes sometimes fatal pneumonia, is likely to be shorter than initially believed, based on expert opinions.

But the government will maintain its policy of refusing entry into Japan of people who stayed in the Chinese province, including Wuhan, in the past two weeks.

The policy was introduced Saturday, when the government's designation of the pneumonia as a specified infectious disease came into force, allowing the government to take compulsory measures, including forced hospitalizations of infected people.

At present, returnees from Hubei are asked to stay at designated facilities at least for two weeks so that the government can monitor their health conditions and see whether they are infected with the virus.

Under the new guidelines, evacuees will be allowed to leave the facilities if they test negative through additional examinations carried out on the 10th day since their return to Japan.

Those who returned on Wednesday aboard the first flight dispatched to Wuhan by the government would be allowed to go home as early as Saturday.

Initially, the government estimated the incubation period at around 14 days, based on past viral epidemic cases, such as the severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, outbreak in China in 2002-2003.

A total of 565 people came back to Japan from Hubei on three government-chartered flights over the three days through Friday. Most of them are staying at government-designated facilities.

The Immigration Services Agency said that 11 foreign nationals have been unable to gain permission to enter Japan since Saturday because of their recent stay in Hubei.

The government refused the entry of eight of them, while the remaining three dropped their entry applications voluntarily.

Meanwhile, Japan took an exceptional measure for eight other foreigners, allowing them to enter the country although they satisfied conditions for refusing entry.

JIJI Press