Imran tells FO to help students stuck in Wuhan

Pakistan Prime Minis­ter Imran Khan has directed the Foreign Office (FO) to take every possible step to help Pakistani students stuck in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

Taking to Twitter on Wednesday, Khan said: "I have issued instructions to our Foreign Office and Overseas Ministry to do everything possible for our students who are stuck in Wuhan city," Dawn news reported.

"We will be extending every material and moral support to China just as China has always stood by us during all our times of trial and tribulation," he added.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Health Zafar Mirza said that he, along with SAPM on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resources Syed Zulfikar Ali Bukhari, had spoken to the stranded students through video link.

"Though it is being said that the students have been suffering and are panicked but at the same time a number of students are quite happy there and don't want to return," he said.

Mirza said that a few days ago a wave of concern was triggered among the students of a Chinese university as an isolation ward was established near their varsity.

"Students feared that they may be infected with the virus. However because of a huge number of patients it was necessary to shift patients to a block near university. We have contacted the Chinese authorities and asked them to shift those patients somewhere else," Dawn news quoted Mirza as saying.

He further said that in Pakistan, samples of 57 suspected patients have been tested and not a single has been found positive. "We can surely say that there is no confirmed case of NCV in Pakistan."