Coronavirus outbreak: 58 engineers from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana stranded in China's Wuhan; families request Centre to ensure early repatriation

Visakhapatnam: Families of 58 engineers from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana stranded in China’s Wuhan city due to coronavirus outbreak has requested the Centre to ensure the repatriation of the youths at the earliest. [caption id=“attachment_7982861” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] AVL Narasimha Rao, father of one of the trapped youths in Wuhan. ANI[/caption] The youngsters had gone to Wuhan for their training and are part of a group of 58-member staff in a Chinese company. The parents of youths are asking the state and the Centre to bring their wards back home at earliest. “Though our wards are being taken care of by their employer, we are worried about their health amid coronavirus outbreak. We are trying to bring them back,” said AVL Narasimha Rao, the father of one of the trapped staffers, told ANI. The first case of coronavirus was reported in Wuhan city of China in December and since then the virus has spread in most part of the world. In China, the death toll from the deadly mounted to 213 with 9,356 people tested positive with the disease. China has imposed quarantine and travel restrictions, affecting the movement of 56 million people in more than a dozen cities, amid fears that the transmission rate will accelerate as hundreds of millions of Chinese travel for the Lunar New Year. Rao said that they have informed Visakhapatnam MP MVV Satyanarayana about their concerns. “He (Satyanarayana) immediately responded and written a letter to External Affairs Ministry and they got a response,” Rao said. Moreover, Rao had also written a letter to Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu seeking his assistance in this regard. In a letter to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar dated 28 January, Satyanarayana made a request to bring back the Indian employees from Wuhan. “It is understood that the employees of Panel Opto-display Technology Private Limited (POTPL), who have been brought to Wuhan’s, China Star Opto-Electronics Technology (CSOT) for training purpose on 23 August, 2019, had been locked down since 23 January this year due to the novel coronavirus. As you are well aware of that there was a virus spreading in the Wuhan City on 31 December, 2019, and in this regard, the concerned were informed them that the virus not spreading that quickly and it was safe to stay in the city,” read the letter. “Since then (23 January), the parents and the said employees are worrying and one of them might get infected and want to go back home as soon as possible, in sound health and their company is also ready to send them back to India, but due to the lockdown, they are stranded in the Wuhan,” it said. “A total of 58 Indians are present in Wuhan’s CSOT and they have already sent their details to the Embassy of India, Beijing. Hence, I request you to kindly help to bring back the said employees from Wuhan in China to India,” the letter further said.