The Chinese Ambassador in Afghanistan Wang Yu in an open letter assured the families and parents of Afghan students living in the coronavirus-hit city of Wuhan that his government is undertaking all possible measures to protect the students.
“Please rest assured, on the Chinese land, the Chinese government will take good care of every foreign student as parents taking good care of their children,” the Chinese envoy writes in a "Letter to Parents of Afghan Students in China."
He also gave assurances that all Afghan students are safe now and will remain so in the future.
“As of today, no Afghan student in China has been infected,” he wrote.
"Please be assured that your children are well fed in China. At present, the great majority of university students are at home for the Chinese New Year holidays and most of those staying are foreign students," according to the letter.
“I’ve been in touch with some Afghan students in Wuhan and talked to them regularly about their lives there. A few days ago, I talked to a student named Mujtaba Naaseri and asked him to protect himself. He told me that all had been well and asked me not to worry,” said the Chinese envoy.
Last month, The Afghan Ministry of Public Health reported that 197 Afghan students are in China, including some in the city of Wuhan, and they are vulnerable to the new coronavirus.
The minister of public health, Ferozuddin Feroz, said:
“We are consistently in contact with sixty-one Afghan students who are under quarantine in Wuhan,” he said. “All of them are in good health condition and we have made the required preparations and coordination with relevant institutions to evacuate the students safely.”
The number of deaths in China’s central Hubei province from a coronavirus outbreak rose by 98 to 1,807 as of Monday, the province’s health commission said on its website on Tuesday.
There had been a further 1,807 cases detected in Hubei, the epicentre of the outbreak, taking the total in the province to 59,989.
Most of the new deaths on Monday were in Hubei’s provincial capital of Wuhan, where the virus is believed to have originated.
Wuhan reported 72 new deaths, down from 76 on Sunday. A total of 1,381 people in Wuhan have now died from the virus.