Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reportedly expressed solidarity with Chinese President Xi Jinping and the people of the Asian country over the outbreak of the rapidly-spreading novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) that has so far claimed 811 lives and infected 37,000 others.

In a letter written to the Chinese President, PM Modi offered India’s assistance to face the challenge. He also offered condolences at the unfortunate loss of lives.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi also conveyed appreciation for the facilitation provided by the Government of China for the evacuation of Indian citizens from the Hubei province of China.

India had on Thursday offered all possible assistance to China in grappling with the situation arising from the novel Coronavirus and said it could also consider evacuating Pakistani students from epidemic-hit Wuhan city if the situation arose and a request was received from Islamabad.

At a media briefing, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar had said: “If required, we will be willing to extend all possible assistance to China.”

Hundreds of Pakistani students stranded in Wuhan have made desperate pleas to the Pakistan government to evacuate them, urging it to take a leaf out of India’s book. However, Islamabad has ignored their pleas, saying medical facilities back home in the country did not meet the standards required to treat a patient diagnosed with Coronavirus.

India had airlifted a total of 640 Indian students and seven Maldivian students from Wuhan on Saturday and Sunday in a complex evacuation operation.

The new death toll has surpassed the global fatalities in the 2002-03 SARS epidemic, even as the World Health Organization said the outbreak appeared to be “stabilising”.

Over 770 people had died worldwide during the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak.

Chinese health authorities said they received reports of 89 deaths on Saturday and there were 37,198 confirmed cases of the novel Coronavirus from 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

The Coronavirus is a large family of viruses that causes illnesses ranging from the common cold to acute respiratory syndromes, but the virus in China is a novel strain and not seen before.