Amid the novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak in China, it hoped that India will not put trade restrictions and limit movement of people to the country in the wake of the epidemic in its Hubei province.
In an interview to news agency PTI, Chinese Ambassador to India Sun Weidong said China’s foreign ministry and local governments are working hard to ensure the safety of Indians and people working in Indian diplomatic missions in China.
Weidong admitted that there could be a short-term impact of the epidemic on China’s economy. He said the country’s internal resilience is growing and it has ample resources and policy tools to cope with economic volatility.
“I am confident that it should not and will not be hindered by short-term difficulties. We should not suspend but expand the economic and trade cooperation between the two countries”, he said.
India has temporarily put restrictions on the movement of people to and from China, like many other countries, as part of precautionary measures to contain spread of the virus.
The death toll from the deadly virus outbreak in China has risen to 490 with 65 new fatalities being reported from Hubei province and its capital Wuhan. With 2 more cases of deaths reported from Hong Kong and Philippines each, making the overall toll to 492, while the number of confirmed cases has touched 24,300.
The WHO has declared a global health emergency after Coronavirus cases were reported in several parts of the globe.
He said, ” China, a responsible country, is not only protecting the health of its people but also that of people around the world.”
“We need your understanding and support for the cooperation between China and India in epidemic control to ensure normal personnel exchanges and trade between the two countries, he said.
The envoy also mentioned a telephone conversation between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Wi and his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar last week on ways to deal with the situation arising out of the outbreak of the virus.
Foreign Minister Jaishankar had conveyed that “it is important to evaluate the outbreak in an objective and rational manner and not take actions that may complicate the situation.”
India, on Saturday brought back 324 Indians from Wuhan in a special Air India flight, while another batch of 323 Indians and seven Maldivians were evacuated from the Chinese city on Sunday.
In the wake of rapidly increasing cases of the deadly virus across the world, the World Health Organisation last month declared the novel Coronavirus outbreak as a global health emergency.
This is the sixth time the WHO has declared a public health emergency of international concern after it did so during the outbreaks of H1N1 in 2009; the Ebola virus in West Africa in 2014 and in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2019; polio in 2014; and the Zika virus in 2016.
The Coronavirus has caused alarm because of its similarity to SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which killed nearly 650 people across mainland China and Hong Kong in 2002-2003. Like SARS, it can be passed among people through the respiratory tract. The symptoms of infection include fever, cough and breathing problems.
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.