Nepal working to evacuate citizens from coronavirus-hit China

The Nepali government said on Monday it is working to evacuate its citizens from China, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak that has reported 361 deaths.

Speaking to reporters, Nepali Health Ministry spokesperson Mahdendra Shrestha said that Nepali citizens living in five different cities of the Chinese province of Hubei "have shown interest to come back" to the Himalayan country and that the procedure for their evacuation would require "three to four days".

As many as 180 Nepalis, including 3 children have approached the country's embassy in Beijing, demanding their evacuation from the country, as per a list of names published by the embassy.

The country is yet to finalise on places where those evacuated from China would be kept for a quarantine period of at least two weeks.

Several countries, including India, have airlifted their citizens from China while more are planning the evacuation.