Malaysian woman in Wuhan uncertain if she can return home

CORONAVIRUS | A Malaysian woman who travelled to Hubei last week to celebrate Chinese New Year is now in limbo as she and her Hubei-born husband are trapped in the province due to the new coronavirus.

Sharing her experience with a Malaysian newspaper, the woman, who only wanted to be identified as Ima, said she was supposed to return to Malaysia on Feb 8.

However, the couple is unsure now if they can leave by then due to the Chinese government's lockdown on the province to prevent the novel coronavirus 2019-NCoV from spreading further.

“I want to return home, but I am not sure if I am allowed to do so, since all transportation modes have been halted due to the quarantine.

“Since we do not know who is healthy or otherwise, my husband’s family and I are restricting our outdoor activities.

“We are also constantly checking our body temperature to ensure immediate action could be taken if any of us shows symptoms of the virus,” she was reported by the New Straits Times today as saying.

Ima, 28, said she and her husband arrived at his hometown in Xiangyang on Jan 21.

Roads in Wuhan almost empty

Only when they were in transit in Wuhan that she noticed the situation in the city was very quiet and the roads were almost empty.

Soldiers were also seen guarding entry points there, she added.

“I learned from my husband’s relatives, who live in Wuhan, that they were not allowed to leave their house.

“The situation is similar here (in Xiangyang). The Chinese government had distributed a circular, door-to-door, advising residents not to leave their houses to avoid the virus from spreading.

“Even roads leading to a nearby shop, located just 200 metres away from our house, was closed as the quarantine exercise intensified."

Following the outbreak of the new virus earlier this month, China recorded the highest number of cases and is the only country that has recorded fatality cases so far.

To curb the new virus, which was first detected in Wuhan in late December last year, the Chinese government ordered the lockdown of provinces, including the Hubei province, and more than 20 cities.