so he wanted to hear what life is currently like in Wuhan the Chinese city
at the very heart of the coronavirus crisis from an international student
studying there considering the sensitive situation in China right now and as he's
close to finishing his PhD at a university in Wuhan we'd rather not
jeopardize his safety or studies by revealing his full identity or showing
his face M as I'll be referring to him has lived in Wuhan for the past three
years or so his school has also warned international students about giving such
interviews so we are treating this as sensitively as possible as we want to
protect his identity so we're joined live by M a student still living in
Wuhan M thanks for joining us firstly how are you feeling is your health okay
good morning mark thank you very much I am I'm very
healthy and safe but restricted to my room so I'll say for now I am very okay
physically but mentally maybe I'm not that okay because of the emotional
stress that comes with being restricted to your room yeah must be very tough
indeed but we're glad to hear that you're physically okay we've all been
seeing pictures and video of Wuhan looking like a ghost town a city on
lockdown which of course it is what have you been doing to pass the time and
generally what's the atmosphere like in the city so generally the city as you
said is like a ghost city now unlike the Wuhan we know which is very vibrant then
nobody is outside because you're afraid despite giving the lockdown we are
afraid of being infected when we go out so we are all in our rooms I am
basically in my room sleeping and sometimes chatting with my friends
through WeChat and also monitoring international media so basically that is
it we can study we can do anything we don't have the mental strenght to study
are you allowed to leave the house then even for a brief period of time if you
need to get the basic necessities food water toiletries etc yeah we are
allowed to do so but then you need to tell authorities what you're going to do
they have to query you so you only go out when it is necessary when you are
going out you have to show your ID and they take this screen you and when you
are coming in also they screen new so that is the only way we are allowed to
go out but even when you are walking around the campus the security people
ask you why you're outside you're supposed to be in your room so that is
basically the life in Wuhan and I've been outside on two occasions to buy
basic necessities but when you go outside you see no cars from no
motorbikes the steerer empty and the supermarket were also basically empty
but that is beginning to change right now he's beginning to change right now
as the people are now coming out I think is going to be difficult to enforce
there that the restrictions from now onwards yeah it's tough to force people
to stay indoors for days or weeks on end and it must be eerie to live in a city
which has a population roughly the size of of New York that's basically empty
but prior to the city being put on lockdown did people in Wuhan suspect
something odd was happening did you see people steadily getting sick because at
least to the outside world this lockdown seemed to come out of the blue okay okay
Mac so basically somewhere in September there was an outbreak of pneumonia but
we were told it is just one of those things because we are transitioning into
the winter starting from November so with that was
just by the passing and then in November there was a major pneumonia outbreak
that is when people actually became a way that there was an outbreak of an
epidemic in Wuhan but then also the black teen was conceived so around the
Christmas time that was 24 23 20 see it became very
difficult because now people went away that there was an epidemic so we started
moving only with people we trusted even when we had taken taxes then from first
second generally that was when the news started getting with that there was
indeed an epidemic but we didn't know it was that deadly now war on the talking
about whether we can trust what the Chinese government is telling us there
has been talked that the actual numbers of confirmed cases of corona virus is
actually much higher than the Chinese authorities are letting on from your own
experience do you think that actually might be the case so much generally the
agreement or the consensus in Wuhan is that the numbers are far been
underreported and that is the reason why especially with international student
acquired more getting hopeless and worried because we know the case this is
his worst than is being reported yeah and then we have some of our people who
are medical student and they have professors who are medical doctors and
working at the front line so sometimes they tell them their challenges they are
facing that there are people who even die of the corner virus but they are
told to say the person had an existing heart condition like diabetes or
hypertension or TB so that was what really killed the person so there's even
this a reported allocation let me use the word allegation that the some of the
doctors were saying if the politicians or the communist leaders are not the
people assigned the cause of death then the Amaris will also get into the
treating treatment rooms to treat the people so we know the cases of infection
are quite high because they are more hospitals in Wuhan and they are
overwhelmed there are more than 10 hospitals we can confirm they are
overwhelmed and they have bearing capacity of more than 10,000 but to new
hospitals needed to be built so this should tell us the gravity or the
intensity of the epidemic or the outbreak so those of us in Wuhan we
know that death weight and the incidence rate are quite high there is being
reported and finally I just like to ask you two questions in one because
unfortunately we are running out of time you are from an African country won't
say which one are there any plans by your country to evacuate you and what
about your family at home they must be dreadfully concerned have you been a it
been able to stay in touch with them yes Oh Mike I'd like to start with my
family so my family indeed they are really they are really concerned they
are worried and my grandma days BP is even going high because of the situation
here and this reflect the situation of other families with their relatives here
so I've been in touch with our embassy and our Embassy has categorically said
that there are no plans to be back with us because they don't want to offend the
Chinese authorities because the Chinese authorities have told them that they are
in the in fact they are in country in control there they are able to do or
manage the situation so we should just stay put and add her to the preventive
measures so at the moment they are no plans to be back with us even though we
want to go home okay well it must be awful that's where we can have to leave
it there unfortunately thanks for agreeing to share your story we know it
isn't easy to do so in China especially at this time we'll stay in touch stay
healthy please and hopefully you'll get to go home safe and sound thank you very
much that was M a PhD student still stuck in Wuhan the lockdown epicenter of
the corona virus stay healthy thank you Mark