The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) issued a notice on Saturday urging banks to strengthen loans to the manufacturing sector at better rates, and to provide improved financial services for businesses making protective gear.

The measures are part of a wider push in the last few weeks to aid small to medium-sized businesses that have been hurt by the coronavirus, which has stalled economic activity in much of the country.

Americans infected with the coronavirus won’t be able to leave on a planned charter flight to evacuate U.S. citizens stuck aboard the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship off the coast of Japan, country officials said Saturday.

The plane, arranged by the State Department, will land in Japan on Feb. 16 and take an undisclosed number of Americans back to various air bases in the U.S., where they will be quarantined for a further 14 days. The cruise ship is the biggest cluster of infected people outside China, with some 285 confirmed cases out of 3,500 passengers and crew.

“The impact of the epidemic on the Chinese economy will be short term and temporary,” Chinese foreign affairs vice minister Qin Gang said at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.

“When the epidemic is over, the subdued consumer demand will be released rapidly and the economy will rebound strongly.”

The State Department will provide a chartered aircraft to fly American citizens aboard the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise directly from Japan to the U.S., it said in a statement Saturday. The aircraft is set to arrive in Japan on the evening of Feb. 16, and will land in the U.S. at Travis Air Force Base in California.

Some passengers will then continue onward to Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. All passengers will need to be quarantined in the U.S. for a further 14 days. Those symptomatic passengers unable to board the flight will “receive the required care in Japan,” the State Department said, expressing its gratitude to Japan for its “extraordinary care and hospitality” and assistance.

“Should you choose not to return on this charter flight, you will be unable to return to the United States for a period of time,” the State Department said. “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will make a final determination on this matter.”

The cruise ship is the biggest cluster of infected people outside China, with some 285 confirmed cases out of 3,500 passengers and crew.

Chinese officials disclosed Saturday that travel during the latest Lunar New Year period was a fraction of previous years, as people stayed home and took advantage of refund policies that authorities enacted in an effort to limit the spread of the virus.

China’s aviation authority said since it first announced a ticket refund policy in late January, domestic and foreign airlines have processed 20 million tickets worth more than 20 billion yuan ($2.9 billion). The number of flights has been about a quarter of what it was last year, a representative said.

China’s railway authority said rail trips during the holiday travel period so far have been one-seventh of the 280 million it had anticipated, and that it has processed 11.5 billion yuan ($1.6 billion) in ticket refunds.

China’s central bank says lenders will accept higher levels of bad loans in a bid to support firms affected by the virus outbreak, according to a Reuters report.

It said that situation will be manageable as China has a relatively low bad loan ratio, the report said.

He added that the problem will be manageable as China has a relatively low bad loan ratio.

China’s deputy chair of the banking and insurance regulator, Liang Tao, said Saturday at a press conference that there are already more than 400 insurance products that can cover risks related to the new coronavirus pneumonia.

“Due to the lack of pricing data, and for the protection against violation of consumer rights, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission prohibits companies from issuing such single-liability products,” Liang said, according to a CNBC translation of his Mandarin-language remarks.

The U.S. is evacuating its citizens and their families who are onboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship off Japan that has been quarantined for almost two weeks, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cited an official from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There will be two evacuation flights from Japan for around 380 people, the report said.

At least 218 passengers on the Diamond Princess were confirmed to be infected.

As of noon on Friday, banks and financial institutions have supplied more than 537 billion yuan ($76.9 billion) in credit to fight the virus, Liang Tao, deputy head of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, said Saturday morning at a press conference in Beijing.

China’s State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said China’s efforts to control the epidemic have been comprehensive and that it’s “under control,” while slamming the “overreaction” of other countries, according to a Reuters report.

In an interview with Reuters in Berlin, he said: “The epidemic overall is under control.”

“”We’ve taken such complete prevention and control efforts, efforts that are so comprehensive, that I can’t see any other country that can do this,” Wang said, adding that they would find it very difficult, according to Reuters. “But China has been able to do this.”

The U.S. should not take unnecessary measures that will affect tourism and trade, he said, according to Reuters.

The U.S. was among several countries who placed travel curbs on Chinese citizens, or travelers who have been to mainland China.

China’s National Health Commission reported an additional 143 deaths nationwide, as well as 2,641 new confirmed cases as of Feb. 14.

That tally includes Hubei, the epicenter of the outbreak, where 2,420 new cases were reported, and 139 more deaths.

That brings the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 66,492, and number of total deaths at 1,523, the authority said.

All times below are in Eastern time.