The city of Wuhan in China is under lockdown thanks to the outbreak of the coronavirus, which has now claimed 170 lives in the country and infected 7,731 individuals.
There are 78 Malaysians who are currently trapped in Wuhan, including Balachandar Subramaniyan, his wife and two children. They cannot leave the city.
In a video released by KiniTV, Bala documents the lonely streets of the city, adding the all the shops and markets have been closed. “We don’t know if the shops will reopen or not, and even if they do open, we don’t know if the food and meat will be fresh,” he says. “We are blind,”
Balachandar was with the Geochemical Laboratory Services Unit of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Malaysia. He is currently pursuing his PhD at the China University of Geosciences in Wuhan, majoring in the field of geochemistry.
Balachandar remains hopeful that the Malaysian government manages to negotiate with China to repatriate the Malaysians trapped in Wuhan.
The United States of America and Japan have evacuated their citizens from Wuhan. 195 Americans from the city are now undergoing three days of monitoring at a Southern California military base to make sure they do not show signs of the virus.
210 Japanese citizens from Wuhan landed at Tokyo’s Haneda airport a second government chartered flight. Three of the 206 Japanese who returned on Wednesday tested positive for the new coronavirus, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said during a parliamentary session.
France, New Zealand, Australia and other countries are also pulling out their citizens or making plans to do so.
Source: KiniTV, The Star Online
