Wuhan has been placed under lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
The Union government today said that it has launched the process of evacuating Indian nationals stranded in China's Hubei province due to the coronavirus outbreak. "The Indian embassy in Beijing is working out the logistics, and is in touch with the Chinese authorities as well as our nationals on this matter. We will continue to share updates," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted.
Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province and epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, has been placed under lockdown to prevent its spread to other parts of the world. Although over 500 Indians study in colleges and universities across Wuhan, some of them had left the city before the outbreak was reported. The number of students still stuck there is estimated at 250 to 300.
The Union government has asked those stranded to submit details of their passports to the Indian embassy in Beijing. Those who had submitted their passports to the Chinese authorities earlier for official reasons will need to provide information on who they handed the document to, along with the date of submission. The details are to be sent to an embassy official on the WeChat ID sondhi_0808, it added.
China has confirmed the death of 106 people to the coronavirus, and reported the number of those diagnosed with "2019-nCoV related pneumonia" at 5,000. As many as 976 people remain critical, and 6,973 were believed infected with the virus as of Monday.
India, meanwhile, is pulling out all stops to prevent the outbreak from entering its borders. Over a dozen people are being monitored in isolation wards at hospitals across the country, including three at Delhi's RML Hospital, for possible exposure to the virus. In Kerala, as many as 430 people have been kept under surveillance at their homes.
Officials said the civil aviation ministry also plans to ask airlines to make in-flight announcements and distribute "health cards" among all flights with direct or indirect connectivity to China.
The coronavirus has become a cause for concern because scientists are yet to figure out how dangerous it really is, and how easily it can spread among people. Because it is new, humans have not been able to build immunity against it. Scientists hope to come up with a vaccine against it in three months.
(With inputs from Agencies)