Zambian students in China have reiterated their earnest appeal to government to evacuate them from that country as the Coronavirus death toll exceeds 1,000.

Speaking to News Diggers on the condition of anonymity, some students in Wuhan, which is the epicenter of the novel Coronavirus, lamented that some of them were lockdown at a university which was also hosting patients of the deadly virus.

“For schools like Jianghan University to be specific, patients are being kept at the University, they are being kept near the students’ apartments. I am actually one of the students at Jianghan University, unfortunately, we have been, I can say locked in, we can’t go anywhere, we can’t access banks and other things,” one of the students lamented.

“There’s another university, Tongji, which is near a Coronavirus hospital and there’s so much fear among people. So what is being televised and what being shown around is actually a lighter situation than what is really going on. It’s actually worse here, it’s actually very bad.”

The students lamented that because they could not access banks, they were running out of money to buy any food.

“Most schools in Wuhan have been closed off, we are not allowed to move around the city or go anywhere. We are actually supposed to stay in school. Public transport has been stopped, buses and cabs are not allowed to move around. And the issue of food, most people don’t have food because the shops are closed and some people are not allowed to leave their rooms to go to the shops that are outside. Even if you want to go the shops, they are closed so there is no point. The ones that are not closed are running out of stock, they are almost empty so you might need to buy some things and there is nothing in the shop,” another student said.
“In terms of food, most universities have this system where you have to order food. The caretaker, the Chinese people who are living in our building, there are certain Chinese people that are put to take care of us so we order through them but the thing is if you don’t have money, then you can’t order. If we don’t have money, then there is nothing that’s going to be given to you and most of us have run out of money since we cannot access the banks.”

They said the Zambian embassy in China had been helpful by providing some masks.

“The embassy has been talking about them giving us supplies and what not but no one wants, okay most people want the supplies but for certain schools, supplies are not cutting it, they just want to be evacuated because our schools are practically empty, many schools are practically empty because the Chinese people are gone and some other countries are also gone so it’s just a few of us left here, most of my friends are gone too. The embassy is helpful yes in terms of the masks and what not despite us not receiving anything yet, but they seem to be helpful,” the students said.

They appealed to government to evacuate them.

“We are still fighting for the evacuation, yes. As it is, the government is taking the situation lightly. For those of us who are here, especially us in Wuhan, the city is on lockdown. So even if our parents or well wishers sent us airfare, we cannot be allowed to travel. But if government steps in and decides to evacuate us, we can come back home and this is what we are praying for. It seems government doesn’t actually know what’s happening, besides, maybe it’s being selfish or they just shun the gravity of the matter, I don’t know why they are treating us like this but yes, we are still trying to get them to move us from here,” lamented the students.

“At my school, we’ve been ordered not to leave the building and to cover ourselves with shower drains with plastics filled with water, seems they know we are at risk.”