Published 04:35 IST, February 2nd 2020
Amid Coronavirus outbreak, Sri Lanka & Turkey evacuate their citizens from Wuhan
Sri Lanka and Turkey are the latest nations which have started evacuating their citizens from Wuhan. Both nations started evacuating their citizens on Saturday.
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Sri Lanka and Turkey are among the latest nations which have started evacuating their citizens from Wuhan. Both nations started evacuating their citizens on Saturday.
More countries begin evacuation
Due to great diplomatic relations between #LKA & #China we were successful in evacuating our citizens in #Wuhan, under lockdown. I thank Govt of #China for their cooperation, and @MFA_SriLanka @airforcelk @Sri_Lanka_Army @MoH_SriLanka & @flysrilankan for your incredible support pic.twitter.com/aHHDbq0JIx
— Gotabaya Rajapaksa (@GotabayaR) February 1, 2020
A special flight of Sri Lankan Airlines brought back 33 Sri Lankan students from the epicentre of the disease. The island nation's President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa thanked the Chinese government for their cooperation bringing back the students.
Similarly, 42 people arrived in Turkey after being evacuated by a government medical plane from Wuhan on Saturday, amid concern over the rapidly spreading new strain of deadly virus. An ambulance plane commissioned from the military was sent with medical personnel on-board to evacuate Turkish citizens living in Wuhan.
Fahrettin Koca, Turkish Minister of Health said that among the 42 passengers, 32 of them are Turkish, 6 are Azerbaijani, 3 are Georgian and one is Albanian. Speaking earlier, he said, "In accordance with the recommendations of the Science board, we have planned on keeping track of all patients for a span of 14 days in individual rooms. From the first day on, we have planned on taking samples and repeating this process once every three days. All services will be done with single-use materials and all waste will be treated as medical waste."
Recently, the Coronavirus has been declared as a global public health emergency by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The organisation has maintained that it has full faith in the efforts taken up the Chinese government to control the virus and that the government is doing a remarkable job.
India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, South Korea, and Turkey are other countries that started evacuating their citizens. 324 people were brought back in a special Air India plane on Saturday morning. A second plane will bring back more citizens.
The USA has asked it's citizens to not visit the country and multiple American airlines have suspended operations to the country.
04:35 IST, February 2nd 2020