The coronavirus spectre

China's national figure for new coronavirus infection had fallen for the third consecutive day on Wednesday. Foreign Minister Wang Yi was cautiously optimistic as he said: "Results show that our control efforts are working". But that doesn't seem to be the case as there is a noticeable increase in infections since then, although infections appear to fall at Chinese epicenter, Wuhan. Concerns rise about growing cases in Iran, Italy and South Korea. In Iran, deputy health minister and an MP are among those ( at least 95) who have been tested positive for virus. The UAE, Iran's biggest Gulf trading partner, has suspended all passenger and cargo flights to the Islamic republic. Iraq has banned entry of travelers from seven countries, including Iran. According to latest figure, total infections in China are almost 78,000 with 2,345 deaths. Outside China in about 30 countries there are more than a thousand infections and at least 17 deaths. The question how coronavirus will play out in times to come has no easy answer.

Insofar as Pakistan is concerned, the authorities are finding it extremely difficult to convince the families of about a thousand students in affected area their evacuation is not necessary. These families have protested against the official reluctance and even sought court's intervention, which on Saturday gave government February 28 deadline to decide whether or not it is going to bring back students stranded in China. That President Xi Jinping has assured Prime Minister Imran Khan that China is treating the Pakistani nationals "as our own people", is a fact. But the issue here is not lack of faith in the Chinese commitment; the issue is the gravity of situation that disturbs their families. The deadly virus is walking tall on China's national landscape for over a month. The demon is not yet tamed. China is making "tremendous progress" and "trends are very encouraging, but we are not at a turning point yet ... and the window to contain is getting narrower by the day," says the World Health Organisation chief. Obviously, the families of Pakistani students stuck in coronavirus-plagued Wuhan are extremely worried; their concerns are quite legitimate.

A growing number of countries are evacuating or planning to evacuate their citizens. Pakistan's reluctance to evacuate students indicates some kind of inter-state sensitivity but Beijing won't say 'no' if Islamabad decides to take away Pakistani students. China has never asked Pakistan to evacuate its citizens; all it has been saying is that while in China they are being given the best possible treatment, and that is most definitely the case. Isn't it paradoxical that special adviser to prime minister on health Dr Zafar Mirza, who should have taken the concerned families of Pakistani students into confidence on his own, reached out to them only after court's order?