Both Seychellois students evacuated from Wuhan are safe in France |05 February 2020
The two Seychellois students in Wuhan, the epicentre of the novel coronavirus, were safely transferred to France, with the kind assistance of the French authorities, on Sunday February 2, 2020, along with other European nationals.
This was confirmed by the department of foreign affairs (DFA) and the Agency for National Human Resource Development (ANHRD) during a press conference organised yesterday at the department of foreign affairs at Mont Fleuri.
The meeting was headed by the principal secretary for foreign affairs, Dr Marina Confait, the chief executive of the ANHRD, Nadia Lauricourt, and Dr Jude Gedeon, the public health commissioner.
“With the assistance of the Chinese government and France we were able to evacuate the two students in due time,” said Dr Confait.
She added that once the coronavirus was declared they were unable to do anything as Wuhan went into a lock down.
She noted that with the help of the Seychelles ambassador to the People’s Republic of China, Vivienne Fock-Tave, they were able to follow the situation closely and that helped them to make the necessary decisions.
“Together with ANHRD and the department of public health we were able to contact the necessary authorities to be able to evacuate the two students,” said PS Confait.
She further noted that due to the unavailability of a direct flight, they contacted France and the latter was able to help in transporting the two students.
The two students will remain in quarantine for two weeks in Marseille in France and once they have gotten a clean bill of health, they will be brought into the country.
On his part, Dr Gedeon noted that once the students are in the country no additional screening will be done, noting that the two students should not be treated differently once they are in the country.
“There are still four students remaining in China with no plans to evacuate them because they feel safe in the area where they are,” said Ms Lauricourt.
At the time of writing this article it was noted that the two students have shown no signs of sickness and are being well cared for in France.