Gujarat CM Rupani Seeks EAM Jaishankar's Help for Gujarat Students in China's Wuhan

Ahmedabad: Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Monday urged External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar to intervene after parents of students studying in Wuhan, the Chinese city in the grip of novel coronavirus, sought help from the BJP government here for their safe return.

In a release issued here, the Gujarat government said as many as 100 students from the state are stuck in China, and informed that Rupani has spoken to Jaishankar on the phone and asked him to intervene to ensure their safe return home.

Coronavirus (officially described as 2019-nCoV) cases were first reported from Wuhan, the capital of central China's Hubei province. A few cases have been found in other countries including South Korea, Japan, Thailand and the United States.

The virus can cause fever, coughing, wheezing and pneumonia. It is a member of the coronavirus family that's a close cousin to the deadly SARS and MERS viruses that have caused outbreaks in the past.

Rupani's move came after Vadodara resident Shashi Jaiman on Monday tweeted to him informing that his 18-year-old daughter, studying medicine in Wuhan, was stuck there, and sought help from the state government.

"My daughter Shreya Jaiman is studying in Hubei University for MBBS, in Wuhan city of China. There are nearly about 300 students of India in which 100 Gujarati who are stuck there due to coronavirus. Please take necessary steps to take them back to India. Vadodara (Guj)," he tweeted.

Speaking to reporters here, Jaiman said, "My daughter told us she is not getting food and water since the last two days as markets and establishments have been shutdown following the virus outbreak. She is in deep trouble and we have appealed to the government to intervene."

He claimed 20 students from Gujarat were studying in the university there and all were in a bad state due to the lockdown caused by the virus.

The death toll due to the virus rose to 56 on Sunday with confirmed cases of the disease reaching 1,975 and 324 of them being critical, Chinese health authorities said in an official statement on Monday.