Chinese universities to postpone new semester for Indian students amid coronavirus outbreak

China's State Council has decided to postpone the next semester for Indian students enrolled in Chinese universities and are unable to return in the wake of coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than 2000 people in China so far, the Indian Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

The Ministry also said that the students will be notified by their respective Universities accordingly.

Providing further details into the matter, the Ministry noted that in a meeting with Chinese Ambassador Sun Weidong, Secretary (Health) Preeti Sudan had requested that Indian students who returned from China had expressed concern that their respective universities were urging them to join soon as a new semester is about to begin or they would lose their admission status.

Following this, the Chinese Embassy responded to the request in a favourable manner and wrote to China's State Council to act over the matter.

The deadly virus, which originated from Wuhan city in the central Chinese province of Hubei last December, has killed more than 2000 people and infected nearly 70,000 others in mainland China itself.

The World Health Organisation has declared the outbreak as a health emergency.