The extreme circumstances may warrant emergency visa situations as has been the case for a few, but yeah for the most part it's a tricky situation. I'd have thought from the UK I could take any indirect flight, but with airlines around the world cutting China off, pretty much Russia was the only dependable one, and even that was only a single airline remaining (though they seemed comfortable that they weren't going to change these policies - Aeroflot).

It's rough. If I can somehow help from this side feel free to ask on their behalf =)