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Amid Coronavirus outbreak concerns, WHO warns countries against evacuating nationals from China: Report

This comes as several countries, including India, on Tuesday announced that their foreign ministries were finalising plans to evacuate their nationals from Wuhan

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Amid scares of Novel Coronavirus outbreak across the world, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has reportedly warned countries against evacuating their nationals from the epicenter of the outbreak in China's Wuhan city. Chinese state media Xinhua reported on Tuesday that evacuating foreign nationals from Ground Zero is unnecessary.

According to Chinese state media, WHO has said that it was still "waiting for clarification" regarding the situation and asked countries to calm down and not act in a hurry. Notably, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus met Chinese officials, including Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on this day, and it can be presumed that the health organisation is waiting for his comments regarding how to contain the infection.

A few experts have stated that there might be merit in WHO's concerns, as the hasty evacuations might, in fact, end up spreading the virus more. Therefore, the need of the hour is to wait and formulate a strategy to contain the infection as effectively as possible.

For context, this comes as several countries, including India, on Tuesday announced that their foreign ministries were finalising plans to evacuate their nationals from Wuhan, the city in China's Hubei province from where the Novel Coronavirus has spread.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Tuesday announced that the Centre will evacuate Indians from China, who are affected by the situation arising out of the n-Cov outbreak crisis in Wuhan city.

The MEA has begun the process to prepare for the evacuation of "Indian nationals affected by the situation arising out of nCorona-2019 virus outbreak in Hubei Province, China," MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, speaking on the matter, Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar said that the Indian government is in contact with the Chinese government and efforts are being made to evacuate people, most of whom are students. Jaishankar assured that very soon all Indians will be evacuated from China.

"Our Embassy is in contact with the Chinese government. We are trying to evacuate people, most of whom are students, from Wuhan city by sending a plane. Efforts are on, I can assure you that Govt of India is working on it and very soon some solution will be found," Jaishankar told ANI.

However, the Chinese Ambassador to India, Sun Weidong, has pointed out that the evacuation of nationals might not be a wise route to take since it may end up spreading the virus further. "The World Health Organization (WHO) does not recommend the evacuation of nationals and has called on the international community to remain calm and not overreact. The WHO is confident in China's epidemic prevention and control ability," Weidong said.

The United States of America, Japan, the United Kingdom and several other countries have also announced their plans to safely evacuate their citizens from Wuhan's Ground Zero. 

The death toll in China has reached 106. On Tuesday, Chinese authorities announced that 4,515 confirmed cases of the Novel Coronavirus infection.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) in India has launched a 24*7 helpline to respond to queries on the Novel Coronavirus.

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