Mysore/Mysuru: As part of twinning programme between India and China, 120 Chinese students are presently pursuing their studies at the University of Mysore. Out of the 120, 18 of them have travelled back to their homes in China for the Lunar new year holiday, at a time when there is a major outbreak of the coronavirus, with the city of Wuhan being the epicentre of this outbreak, with the reported death toll crossing 218 and thousands affected.

Mysore University Vice-Chancellor, Prof. G. Hemantha Kumar, who is presently in Trivandrum on an official trip, has urged the 18 Chinese students already in China, to stay back there to avoid any outbreak of the virus here in Mysuru city. The students have been intimated through SMS, according to sources.

According to District Surveillance Officer, Dr. Shivaprasad, the city is fully prepared to handle the situation if there is an outbreak of the coronavirus. Special wards have been set up at all District and Taluk hospitals, he added. 

It may be recalled here that the first confirmed case of the virus outbreak in the country was reported from neighbouring State, Kerala, yesterday. A girl student studying at Wuhan University, who recently returned to Kerala, presented with symptoms of the coronavirus and has been kept in isolation at a hospital in Kerala. Her condition is said to be stable. 

Three other students, who returned from Wuhan, were also put in an isolation ward at the same hospital and lab results of five more patients are awaited.

WHO declares global health emergency

World Health Organization (WHO) has declared coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern. “The main reason for this declaration is not what is happening in China but what is happening in other countries,” said WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.