Raising concerns about the lives of Indians including students from Kerala, stranded in China following the Coronavirus outbreak, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking him to take measures to evacuate the marooned Indians immediately. This is the second time Pinarayi Vijayan is writing a letter in this regard to the Centre.
In the letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Pinarayi Vijayan has asked to evacuate Indians stranded at Wuhan of Hubei Province, which is the epicentre of the virus outbreak, by charting a special flight.
“It seems that the ground situation in Wuhan has worsened and we have information from the relatives of Kerala students studying at various universities there that the situation is grave. It might be appropriate to consider operating a special flight to Wuhan or a nearby functional airport and airlift the Indian nationals stranded there to bring them back to India,” Pinarayi Vijayan said in the letter.
According to the students in Wuhan, there are 46 Indian students stranded in Wuhan University alone. About 20 of them hail from Kerala. Apart from Wuhan it is reported that Indians are stranded in Yichang area.
The Chief Minister has also offered the Centre medical assistance from the state if required. “On behalf of the state of Kerala, I would like to offer assistance of medical professionals from our side in case the Indians being evacuated from Wuhan are to be medically attended to,” the CM wrote in the letter.
When the deadly Nipah virus outbreak happened in Kerala for the second time in 2019, the state’s health system efficiently managed to prevent its spread to just one affected person with zero casualties.
Pinarayi Vijayan has also asked the Prime Minister to give necessary directions to Indian Embassy to ‘act proactively and provide necessary assistance to Indians including Keralites stranded in Wuhan and Yichang’.
The Indian Embassy in China on Sunday had given assurance to the students of Wuhan University that arrangements to evacuate the students are being mooted. But no further update has been given to the students following that. The Embassy had also given a message to other Indians in the region to furnish their details and travel plan in order to check the possibilities to initiate evacuation.
Meanwhile, learning that some of the Indian nationals struck in China do not have passports in their possession, the Indian Embassy has asked them to furnish the details of the same to their officials.
“We have learnt that some of the Indian nationals are currently not in possession of their passports, which have been submitted to Chinese authorities for visa extension or work permit or for some other reasons. All those presently in Hubei province and not in personal possession of their passports are requested to intimate us the details,” tweeted the Embassy.
We have learnt that some of the Indian nationals are currently not in possession of their passports, which have been submitted to Chinese authorities for visa extension/ work permit/ other reasons. All those presently in Hubei province and not in personal possession of their...
— India in China (@EOIBeijing) January 27, 2020
As per reports, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday came out publicly to state that the outbreak is at an ‘accelerating speed’. Chinese health authorities have announced the death toll due to Coronavirus has sharply increased to 80 with 2,744 confirmed cases.
Meanwhile, India is taking stringent precautions to prevent the virus outbreak from making an entry into the country. Those returning from other countries, especially China, are under strict observation.
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