A young woman, who is among the six Indians stopped from coming back to India, has released a video seeking the government’s help to fly them back home from China’s coronavirus-struck Wuhan city.
The six Indians were not allowed by Chinese authorities to board the special Air India flight, which flew out of Wuhan early on Saturday with 324 of their compatriots on board.
Four students and two trainees from a Shenzhen-based Chinese electronics company were stopped at immigration during their medical screening just before they were to board the New Delhi-bound aircraft.
All of them displayed either above normal or fluctuating temperatures during the screening and were asked to step aside from the immigration line. Fever, cough and shortness of breath are three key symptoms of the novel coronavirus, a previously unknown strain.
The woman, who can be seen with her face covered in a mask, says in the video that she and her colleague do not have any symptom of the fast-moving coronavirus. Reports said she is from Kurnool district in Andhra Pradesh.
She says they were told they could take the next flight to India but were informed on Sunday afternoon that they will not be allowed to board that as well.
“We are asked to stop and not to take the flight. They said that we can take the next flight. But today in the afternoon they called and said that we were not even allowed to take that flight because of yesterday’s body check… We are stuck.” she says.
“The Chinese people didn’t assure neither deny that we are having any virus. We are ready to prove that we don’t have any virus because we don’t have any symptoms,” she is heard saying in the video.
“We had just a raise in our body temperature. It was not that high. It was just some 37.5 degrees which was due to some physical activities under some strain at that time. We were panicked a bit,” she says.
She says their body temperature is stable now and that they don’t have any other symptoms of coronavirus.
“We request our government to take us back to India and for that we are ready to prove that we don’t have any symptoms regarding the virus and we are safe and healthy. So, I request the government to take us back to India,” she adds.
India has evacuated more than 600 people from Wuhan on Saturday and Sunday and kept them under observation in two quarantine facilities in Delhi and Haryana’s Manesar. Officials have said one of the evacuees has shown symptoms of being affected by the virus.
At least 56 people died of the novel coronavirus on Sunday pushing the death toll from the outbreak to 361, health authorities have said.
The worst-hit Hubei province recorded more than 2100 cases on Sunday, bringing the total number of cases in the central Chinese province to over 16,600.
More than 2800 new cases were reported nationwide. China now has at least 17,205 confirmed cases of the virus across the country.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned other countries that they need to be prepared in the event the disease spreads among their populations.
