Coronavirus precautions: Sudan provides China air bridge

Chairman of the Sovereign Council Lt Gen Abdelfattah El Burhan directed an air bridge to bring Sudanese people from the Chinese city Wuhan, the stronghold of the coronavirus, to Khartoum.

El Burhan also called on the Ministry of Health to make adequate arrangements to receive the returnees in an appropriate manner.

He expressed his confidence “in the ability of the state agencies to deal with this emergency crisis” and to do what needs be done to secure the country and the people.

Chargé d'Affaires Esameldin at the Sudanese embassy in Beijing said that arrangements have been made to evacuate 150 Sudanese students from Wuhan within 48 hours. He said that commercial airlines will be used.

So far the coronavirus infected 24,369 persons in China (including Hong Kong), 492 died, 892 recovered. In other countries 219 people have been infected, one of them died.

Sudan has been facing various disease outbreaks in the past months, including cholera, dengue fever, Rift Valley fever (RVF), chikungunya, and malaria, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported in its Sudan Situation Report in December 2019. In Sudan one third of all children are underweight.

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