₦airaland Forum

South African citizen Amy Pittaway, who went to Wuhan, China, to teach, says she is stranded in the coronavirus-plagued city.

Pittaway spoke to 702 presenter Bongani Bingwa on Friday and said the virus had reached its peak in the city.

“We are now completely stranded ... I just want to come home, I just want to go back to my mom and give her a big hug. We are feeling very abandoned and alienated from our own country.”

At Cape Town International Airport on Wednesday, dozens of travellers were reunited with loved ones as they unmasked themselves after overnight flights from China and nearby locations.

Pittaway said she was disappointed in the SA government's inability to put any effort into bringing them home.

Health minister Zweli Mhize, however, said on Friday there was no need for the government to evacuate any South Africans in China.

“We are confident in China's ability to manage the public health emergency effectively and that our citizens living in China are in safe hands.

“There is no evidence to support repatriation or emergency evacuations of our citizens, at this stage, there's been no report of any South African who has contracted the infection.”

Mkhize added that there are two South Africans who are under a 14-day quarantine. The two had moved from Wuhan city to a neighbouring municipality in China.

Mkhize said 55 travellers were found to have an elevated temperature on arrival in SA and were referred to nurses for further assessment.

He said 14 had flown from China, one from Thailand and 40 were from non-endemic countries.

“No travellers were found to have symptoms consistent with the coronavirus and none required isolation.”

A Ghanaian student trapped in China, the country at the centre of the fatal coronavirus, have issued an urgent plea to President Akufo-Addo, for him and other students to be evacuated.

In an emotional letter to Ghanaian authorities, Kabu Nartey, noted how other countries, including USA, France and Japan, had taken steps to rescue their citizens from China.

"Ghanaian students have been thrown into shock and psychological trauma. They’ve since been reaching out to relative in Ghana and crying that they are saved."

Below is Kabu Nartey’s emotional letter to President Akufo-Addo

“We are dying! Our hostels haven’t been sprayed. Some media in Ghana are not painting a true picture of what is happening to us in China. We’re dying here in China!”

These were the opening statement of Ms. Naa, a Ghanaian medical student in the Hanghou, a city in China.

She and her colleagues have been terrified for months indoors. They’re only waiting to either get affected by the fast-spreading virus which has claimed over 37.000 lives in China and have affected many in about 25 countries.

“Broken” Naa was a part of the two I had a chat with this morning (Monday 10-02-2020). They narrated their ordeal with raging voices. According to them, they’ve heard the government of Ghana is contemplating evacuating them. They’ve also heard some monies have been sent to their student leadership in China to purchase nose marks and other protective gears.

But all these have done nothing to clearing their fear of infection and death soon. They feel abandoned by both the Chinese government despite intentional law requires proper treatment of foreign nationals. More pathetic - they feel dejected by their own government, the government of Ghana. They say they’re discriminated against in their daily strive to remain unaffected; and to worsen the situation, they continue to be entrapped in their hostels as they witness many terrifying deaths around them.

Our brothers and sisters say, each day comes with a new coronavirus case. These cases happen right under their noses, and some next-doors. They say at the least complaint of headache or stomachache, some students in question are picked up and sent to quarantine centers and mixed up with affected people.

Despite the growing cases around them, their hostels haven't been fumigated, but their Chinese counterparts have their fumigated.

Schools have been closed down in the midst of the outbreak, some will soon reopen in a fortnight’s time. Our Ghanaian siblings remain indoors unable to do anything meaningful of life.

For months now, they continue to endure everything that comes with living in a stuffy, less tidy and sickening room environment. Many of them continue to pick up communicable diseases as a result of the stale environment. But they dare not complain to the hearing of anyone. They delete every news or chat they receive on the subject of the epidemic, there’re daily tech surveillance on them.

The cost of living of our brothers and sisters have also shot up exponentially.

A menu is sent round the various rooms for them to choose what they wish to buy, at very exorbitant prices. Some have starved, others are starving. For those who have monies to eat, fear anything could be put in the food they order. Many are running out of food and money. The epidemic have curtailed their movements.

Some students who are engulfed with uncontrolled fear contact their school authorities. The response by some authorities shows the gravitas of the situation and the need for the government to reconsider its decisions. For instance, a Dean of one of the universities is reported to have advised the students to go to their countries because the situation is getting out of hand, the rate at which people are dying is scary.

Ghanaian students have been thrown into shock and psychological trauma. They’ve since been reaching out to relative in Ghana and crying that they are saved.

After I told them, the hesitance on the part of government to evacuate them is due to the fear of contracting the dreaded virus in the process of evacuation, they answered in a sorrowful voice that they’d prefer to die in their beloved home (Ghana) than in a strange land which isn't compassionate about their lives.

The lives of these Ghanaian brothers and sisters have become even more volatile in the face of allegations that the Chinese government appealing to their highest court to obtain judgment to kill all affected patients. This allegation has been reported as false but the chaotic situation remain unchanged.

I am terrified myself after hearing the account of my sisters in Hangzhou. I can’t forget how teary they sounded and how hopeless they’d become because of their plights. More worrying , I haven't read any of such accounts on the Ghanaian media.

Indeed, such a worrying issue that need urgent attention and reconsideration by the Ministry of Health, the Ghana Health Service, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the President himself. We can’t wait until we record the first black case. For me whether they’re on scholarship or not, it’s not a time for selective justice, it should worry everyone called Ghanaian.

Mr Minister, Your Excellency the President, your children in China say they want to die in Ghana and not China. And as it stands now, they are dying! Please rescue them!

I asked Miss Naa, what could be done to help them if evacuation fails, she said their hostels should be sprayed regularly, and that may only contain their cries for a while, since they feel the virus has come very close to them in their hostels.

Kabu Nartey

The 85 Kenyans stuck in Wuhan city, where the coronavirus outbreak originated, will be brought home immediately China lifts the lockdown over the city.

The Ministry of Health yesterday said the evacuation was being coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Kenyan students are currently caged in their dorm cubicles in fear, only going out when authorities distribute food to foreign students every other day.


Newly-appointed Health CAS Dr Mercy Mwangangi said the evacuation would only happen when Chinese authorities lift the lockdown over Wuhan.

"However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in constant communication with the 85 Kenyan students," she told the National Assembly Committee on Health yesterday.

She said efforts to prevent the virus spreading into Kenya were being coordinated by the ministries of Health, Interior, Defence, Foreign Affairs, Transport and the Kenya Red Cross.

"We have identified two holding rooms at JKIA and set up isolation facility at KNH. Additional satellite isolation facilities have been earmarked for Nairobi county," she said.

Mwangangi and Principal Secretary Susan Mochache appeared before the committee to explain Kenya's preparedness in handling an outbreak here.

It is not clear how long the Wuhan lockdown will last, but many foreign counties are already repatriating their citizens.

The Kenyan students say they are increasingly frustrated seeing their friends from other countries evacuated while they remain.


"Please, we need urgent assistance here in Wuhan. The Kenyan Embassy seems to have abandoned us. We really need urgent assistance. It's a very serious situation," said John Mulongo, a student in Wuhan.

Australia, the European Union, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, India, New Zealand, Japan, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States are all in various states of preparation to evacuate their citizens from the city. But no African country has evacuated its citizens.

Last week, the Kenyan embassy in Beijing sent out a press release asking Kenyans to “protect themselves and comply with the measures put in place by the local authorities”.

Countries that evacuate their citizens are faced with the prospect of importing the virus along with those coming home.

They are therefore isolating the returnees for 14 days within which tests are conducted.

Head of disease surveillance Dr Daniel Lang'at said it was not necessary to hold someone for 14 days.

"Blood tests can detect the virus even during the asymptomatic 14 day period," he told MPs yesterday.

Kenya's ambassador to China Sarah Serem had last week ruled out an evacuation.

She said Kenya will not risk further infection by jetting citizens from China due to the coronavirus scare.

Serem said it would be better if Kenyans in China were monitored and protected as China found a way to terminate the highly infectious virus.

"I don't think Kenya is ready to deal with the virus. The government of China is in a better position to deal with the virus and bringing Kenyans in China back to Kenya will only further expose the rest to the danger of infection," she said.

A group of Senegalese families asked their government to immediately evacuate their relatives from coronavirus-stricken China on Wednesday, after the president said it lacked the means to airlift them to safety.
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Senegal's President Macky Sall said on Monday that the poor West African country could not match "big countries" in organising emergency evacuations from the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

Chinese authorities have cordoned off the city at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak that has killed at least 560 people and infected over 28,000 more in China.

Thirteen Senegalese students are stuck in Wuhan, according to their families.

"Our children demand a minimum, their right to be rescued by their motherland," said Yoro Ba, representing a group of families with relatives stranded in Wuhan, at a news conference in Senegal's capital Dakar on Wednesday.

Occasionally breaking into tears, he pointed out that states such as Algeria and Tunisia were organising evacuations for their citizens and that Senegal had the resources to do so too.

The families were "distraught, heartbroken and bitter" at Sall's statement on Monday, Ba said, adding that the students were nonetheless in good health so far.

He claimed, however, that not evacuating them meant "certain death".

On Monday, Sall said Senegal lacked the sophisticated medical infrastructure to evacuate stranded Senegalese, pointing to the charter flights, specialised medical personnel and quarantine facilities that would be required.

Despite a growing economy, Senegal is a poor country where about 40 percent of the population live on less than $1.90 (€1.70) a day, according to the World Bank.

However, Sall's announcement provoked outrage on Twitter. One prominent Senegalese columnist, for example, asked what the president would do if his own son was stranded in Wuhan.

There has not yet been a confirmed coronavirus case in Africa. But authorities are on high alert as deep trade links to China put many countries on the continent at risk.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Apili:
Amen.

fvckchina:
there is no free lunch.

this is called "the cost of earning quick money in china".

they choose not to earn 300naira everyday in nigeria , then they should not feel sorry to risk their lives earning 300 dollars in china.

Badb0y4lyf:
This is an indication that Nigeria does not care for it citizens we just Dey pay Tax for noting ordinary Egypt and South Africa evacuated her citizens from there why can’t Nigerians I’m sure the case will be different if it Hanan Buhari that’s there.

stanliwise:
[s]So in other words, you're happy they are suffering in their greener pasture. right

Na God know why e put me with people like you on this planet.

So full of insensitivity and common sense. Just pray that Corona virus doesn't creep into Nigeria.. see you will beg for visa to run to Libya or Gambia.... You still don't understand some fundamental principles of living.
Your Government can't follow the footsteps of advanced country and bring and quarantine it people, and here you are shining teeth and nodding head like agama lizard. Fully in support. It was the same way, we have unknowingly supported our government with their failed leadership till this moment because we thought at that time, we were revenging[/s].

Notasaints:
Your opinion matters not.

malcomxjr:
I think it is you that is brainless. Have you asked your self what plans your country is having for them or do you think you are immune wise up

malcomxjr:
I think it is you that is brainless. Have you asked your self what plans your country is having for them or do you think you are immune wise up

sinkhole:
Many people in this country are dafts!
Last time, a minister was offering some useless sum of money to those who could find a cure for CoDIV-19.
How can somebody find a cure to what you don't know?
Americans are evacuating their sick and infected people from China, is it only because they have high tech?
By getting the infected people, America could then lay their hands directly on the virus, keep a sample of it and continue working on it directly!
Britain, Japan, etc are evacuating their infected people not only because they have high tech but because that is an easy way to have direct access to the virus!

Blackeurop:
I'm really glad I left China by December back to base, so Na so man 4 take carry placard.