VADODARA: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday said that the Indian Embassy in Beijing is in close contact with the Chinese government in order to facilitate the evacuation process of the Indians, mostly students, from Wuhan by sending a plane due to coronavirus outbreak.
“Our Embassy is in contact with the Chinese government. We are trying to evacuate people, most of whom are students, from Wuhan city by sending a plane. Efforts are on. I can assure you that the Government of India is working on it and very soon some solution will be found,” Jaishankar said.
Prior to the minister, his ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar reiterated the same noting that the evacuation process has begun for the Indians who reside in Wuhan–the epicentre of the deadly virus outbreak.
The death toll from the deadly coronavirus rose to 80 in China with 2,744 confirmed cases of the disease reported from the country on Monday.
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV).
China has imposed quarantine and travel restrictions, affecting the movement of 56 million people in more than a dozen cities, amid fears that the transmission rate will accelerate as hundreds of millions of Chinese travel for the Lunar New Year.
India’s Civil Aviation Ministry has also opened health camps at seven Indian airports across the country to screen passengers arriving from China as well as Hong Kong. (ANI)
