TORONTO — **********, which offers direct flights to Beijing and Shanghai from Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, as well as to ***** through a partner, is allowing passengers to rebook flights to the Chinese cities free of charge.

Updated today, **********’s notice for passengers flying to Beijing (PEK) and Shanghai (PVG) applies to tickets issued no later than Jan. 28 for travel Jan. 24 – Feb. 29. Passengers can rebook free of charge until April 15.

********** had previously waived change fees for ***** (WUH) for tickets issued no later than Jan. 21, for travel Jan. 22 – March 29. Those passengers can rebook free of charge until June 15.

So far Canada is not planning to airlift out any Canadian citizens. Meanwhile the U.S. and several other nations prepared Tuesday to airlift citizens out of *****.

Hong Kong’s leader said it will cut all rail links to mainland China and halve the number of flights as authorities in China and overseas sought to stem the spread of the new *****. The number of confirmed cases rose to more than 4,500.

The U.S. government chartered a plane to fly out diplomats from the U.S. Consulate in *****, where the outbreak started, and other Americans. The plane will make a refuelling stop in Alaska before flying on to Ontario, California, the U.S. Embassy said.

A Japanese-chartered Boeing 767 departed for ***** to fly out its citizens, the first of two possible flights, and South Korea also said it will send a plane to the city in central China. France, Mongolia and other governments also planned evacuations.

China has cut off access to ***** and 16 other cities in Hubei province to prevent people from leaving and spreading the ***** further. The lockdown has trapped more than 50 million people in the most far-reaching ******* control measures ever imposed.

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam, wearing a green surgical ****, told a news conference that train service would stop at midnight Thursday and that the two stations connecting to the mainland would be closed.

She stopped short of a total closing of the border, as *********** and Mongolia have done, but said ferry and bus service to the mainland would also be suspended.

China’s ***** toll from the new viral ******* rose to 106, including the first ***** in Beijing, the Chinese capital, and 24 others in Hubei province, where the first illnesses were detected in December.

There were 1,771 new cases confirmed in China, raising the national total to 4,515, according to the National Health Commission. It said 976 people were in serious condition.

The sharp rise in ********** in recent days suggests there has been significant human-to-human spread of the *****, though it could also be explained by expanded monitoring efforts, said Malik Peiris, chair in virology at the University of Hong Kong.

Peiris, an adviser on the ***** Health Organization’s *********** ********* committee, said it is reassuring that outside of China the ******* has not spread widely beyond the people who brought it from *****.

The new ***** causes cold- and flu-like symptoms, including cough and *****, and in more severe cases, shortness of breath and *********.

A Canadian teacher who lives in ***** says he has no plans to leave.

Wayne Duplessis says he and his family are hunkered down in their home just outside of *****’s city centre. He, his wife, Emily Tjandra, and their 15-year-old son Wyatt have spent the last two weeks chatting with people online, watching videos, movies, and the news, and listening to music.

Some Canadians in ***** have called on the federal government to send a flight to get them out, but Duplessis says he doesn’t think it’s wise to spend hours in the air with people who could be ****.

Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief medical officer, has said symptoms of the new *********** are similar to those of the common flu and it can take up to two weeks for an infected person to start showing signs.

“You’re taking a big chance,” Duplessis said in a Skype interview from China. “You put people into a container with recycled air, where even three or four of them might be asymptomatic – the risk is too great.”

China has confirmed more than 4,500 cases of the new *****, with more than 100 ******. Most have been in the central city of ***** where the outbreak began in December.

Duplessis is originally from Espanola, Ontario.

With files from The Canadian Press and The Associated Press