India, Bangladesh consider evacuating citizens from Wuhan

New Delhi:  India and Bangladesh said on Tuesday they were working on evacuating their citizens from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of a coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than 100 people.

“We have begun the process to prepare for evacuation of Indian nationals affected by the situation arising out of Corona-2019 virus outbreak in Hubei Province, China,” Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar said in a tweet.

He said Indian authorities were working out the logistics of evacuating people from the city of 11 million people that is under a lockdown.

In Bangladesh, Foreign Minister Abdul Momen said talks were underway to bring back Bangladeshi citizens from China.

The death toll from the virus rose to 132, as authorities scrambled globally to curb its spread and U.S. health authorities advised travellers to avoid all non-essential travel to China. A growing number of countries have said they will evacuate their citizens from Wuhan.

Some Bangladeshi students took to social media to ask about evacuation.

Momen, the Bangladeshi foreign minister, said the government was keeping a close watch on people coming home from China.

“We are keeping their records so that we can track them if something goes wrong,” he said.

Officially known as “2019-nCoV”, the coronavirus can cause pneumonia, but it is too early to know just how dangerous it is and how easily it spreads.