Indian, Pak students in Wuhan panic as officials set up hospitals in campuses

Residents walk through a disinfection channel at the entrance to a residential compound in Beijing on Thursday. Pic/AFP

Beijing: Indian and Pakistani students in China's Hubei province, the epicentre of the Coronavirus [COVID-19] outbreak, have made desperate pleas to their governments to evacuate them after Chinese officials decided to convert their university gymnasiums and dormitories into makeshift hospitals amid a big surge in infection cases. The death toll from the epidemic surged to 1,367 with 254 deaths on Wednesday, highest in a day, raising concerns that the virus is nowhere near slowing down. There were 52,526 confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland at the end of Wednesday. On Wednesday, Wuhan and Hubei province itself reported 14,840 new confirmed cases to local health officials said.

Three Indian students studying at the Hubei University of Chinese Medicine made desperate pleas to the Indian government to evacuate them after the university announced plans to convert the gym into a hospital. India has already evacuated 647 Indian nationals mostly students from Wuhan and Hubei. Ten Indians could not board the two special flights due to fever. Indian officials say around 80 to 100 Indians are still left in the area. "Our university is going to use the gymnasium as the shelter to receive the confirmed cases," the university said in a notice. The university earlier was not on the list but now an official notification has been issued to include it. "Now we need to cooperate. For whole Wuhan, it's a 'war' period. Hope everyone can understand...We will try our best to ensure your basic needs. Special Period, special way. Do not go out!" it said.

"Do take precautions!" the university notification said. China has already built two make-shift hospitals with 2,300 beds and converted auditorium and stadiums into hospitals. With surging cases, university dormitories and gymnasiums are being converted into hospitals. About 1,000 Pakistani students are currently in Hubei province. The Pakistan government came under heavy criticism for not evacuating them. A number of Pakistani students too have complained that the dormitories are being converted into hospitals with virus patients. Pakistani daily Dawn reported PM Imran Khan directing the Foreign Office to take every possible step to help Pakistani students stuck in novel coronavirus (NCV)-hit Wuhan city. Pakistani students of a Chinese medical university are fearful as patients infected with the virus have been shifted to a building located near their university.

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever