For Pakistani students in Wuhan, life is back to normal

Life in the Chinese city of Wuhan is returning to normalcy for Pakistani students, even as the world around them continues to battle against the coronavirus.

After being under lockdown, and restrictive measures, for 430 days, Pakistani students enrolled at the Central China Normal University organised a grand picnic. This was the first time the students were able to gather together outdoors since January 23, 2020.

Wuhan, which was the centre of the coronavirus outbreak, has not reported a single case of the infection in 168 days, as per media reports.

This year in January, a World Health Organisation-led investigation team visited Wuhan. In a report released later, on the origins of the coronavirus, the WHO said that the disease most probably jumped from animals to humans.

The report further dismissed the perception that the virus leaked from a laboratory.

A Pakistani student Naseem Baloch told Geo.tv that almost all the students at his university have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

“We are finally back to normal,” Ali Abbas Nagri, a PhD student, told Geo.tv over the phone. “At a time when coronavirus cases were high, there was complete ban to go outside the university campus. While within the university we were allowed to meet only three times a day while observing health guidelines.”

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Peng Zhengwu, the deputy consul-general at the Chinese Consulate in Lahore, said that the Pakistani students in China are being provided all the facilities they will need to continue their higher education.

“The Chinese government has taken care of Pakistani students as if they are our own,” Zhengwu told Geo.tv.

An estimated 500 students from Pakistan are currently enrolled in different universities across Wuhan.