MONITORING DESK

KARACHI: Five Pakistani students have been diagnosed with coronavirus in China, Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Yao Jing confirmed on Wednesday.

"There are not four... five have been confirmed," the Chinese ambassador told Independent Urdu. He, however, clarified that the affected students are not from Wuhan city, the epicenter of the outbreak, but rather from Guangzhou.

"But before this illness, they visited Wuhan for some site seeing or something, so unfortunately they were affected," Ambassador Jing said.

The Chinese ambassador said that the Pakistani students were immediately isolated and shifted to a hospital after they showed symptoms of coronavirus.

"The information I got yesterday is that their situation is improved... their health is progressing," he said. "So don't worry there won't be any kind of bigger problem for them."

Ambassador Jing said that the Chinese government is trying to control the spread of the virus outside China.

"So evacuation sometimes is risky. This is the scientific recommendation that for the safety and health it is better to stay where you are," he added.