india

Updated: Sep 01, 2020 20:38 IST

Indian authorities should “swiftly” separate from their families students who have returned to the country from China and exhibit symptoms of the novel Coronavirus infection to prevent the spread of the disease, one of China’s leading scientists on the disease has said.

Gao Fu, the director-general of China’s apex Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said for those not exhibiting the symptoms “home quarantine” should be good enough.

Hundreds of Indian students studying in Wuhan, at the epicentre of the novel Coronavirus outbreak, have returned to India this month for the Chinese Lunar New Year (LNY) holidays, raising the spectre of an unaware carrier infecting others.

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The disease can be transmitted between humans and is highly contagious.

No Indian who has travelled from China recently has been diagnosed with the disease yet but authorities are tracking several of them.

“A lot of Indian students studying in China are back in India. I think the measures the students (should) take when they go back to India are the same as (what) Wuhan’s university (take) when they returned China’s other cities including Beijing,” Gao said on the sidelines of the national health commission (NHC) press conference in Beijing on Sunday.

“We have been advocating (for everyone) home quarantine is enough if you don’t have symptom (of the infection like fever and cough); follow basic hygiene measures such as wearing a mask when you go out and reduce group activity,” Gao, who is considered one of the foremost experts on viruses in China, said, adding that they should drink plenty of water and wash hands frequently.

“Of course, if students who have returned to India found themselves with obvious symptoms of the Coronavirus, they should be encouraged to go to the hospital, separate them from others swiftly,” he said.

“It is the most basic thing you can do to protect yourself from infectious diseases no matter what it is,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Indian embassy in Beijing on Sunday said it was exploring “all options” to provide relief to affected Indian citizens.

The MEA said it was also exploring “possible travel options of Hubei”.

Around 250-odd Indians mostly students remain in a locked down Wuhan.

The Indian ministry of external affairs (MEA) and the embassy retweeted each other saying that they were communicating with the Chinese authorities to try and facilitate Indian citizens caught up in these difficult times, the MEA tweeted.

The embassy opened a third hotline for the Indians in Wuhan on Sunday, saying they had fielded 600 calls and responded to the concerns.