Students should stay in Wuhan as Pakistan cannot treat coronavirus: Envoy

HIGHLIGHTS

• Pakistani ambassador to China Naghmana said their students should not be evacuated.
• Stranded Pakistani students in China have been crying for help amid the coronavirus scare.
• Naghmana Hashmi in an interview shared that China has the best medical facilities to handle coronavirus patients.

As the stranded Pakistani students in China continue to cry for help amid the coronavirus scare, Pakistan’s Ambassador to China Naghmana Hashmi on Sunday said that their students should not be evacuated from the virus-hit Chinese city of Wuhan as “medical facilities in Pakistan do not meet the standards” required to treat a patient diagnosed with novel virus.

Dashing the hopes of the several Pakistani citizens stuck in coronavirus-hit Wuhan, Pakistan’s ambassador to China, on Sunday told Pakistan-based Geo News that no evacuation is possible because of lack of medical facilities in Pakistan.

According to a report by Geo News, Naghmana Hashmi in an interview shared that China has the best medical facilities to handle the patients suffering from the disease.

Hashmi said that some students were worried about the shortage of food and other issues in Wuhan, but the embassy is fully aware of their concerns and is in constant touch with Chinese authorities in Hubei province, Geo News reported.

“I want to assure our citizens that the Pakistani Embassy and Chinese government are working jointly to make sure their problems are immediately addressed. Currently, the province is quarantined and no one is allowed to go. As soon as the restrictions are lifted, we will be the first to be with our countrymen,” Geo News quoted Naghmana Hashmi as saying.

The statement from the envoy comes a day after a senior health official in Islamabad announced that the government will not bring its citizens despite multiple requests from the students and their families for immediate evacuation.

Dr. Zafar Mirza, a special assistant to the prime minister on National Health Services, had on Friday said, “We believe it is in the interest of our loved ones in China to stay there. It’s in the larger interest of the region, the world, and the country that we don’t evacuate them now”.

So far at least five of the Pakistani students in China have been tested positive of the mysterious pathogen.

As India flew special Air India jets to evacuate the stranded Indians from China, Pakistani students were seen appealing for help and evacuation and slamming the Pakistan government over its refusal to save the lot.

Several students stranded in Wuhan, who saw their Indian counterparts being evacuated, have released videos on social media slamming their government and crying for help.