Associate professor from Etah, wife stuck in Wuhan, appeal for rescue

AGRA: Hailing from Jalesar in UP’s Etah, 35-year-old Ashish Yadav, an associate professor at Wuhan Textile University, and his wife Neha Yadav, 30, who’s pursuing PhD in computer science, have requested Indian government, to immediately evacuate them along with 23 other Indian nationals, mostly students, in the novel coronavirus-hit Chinese city.
Speaking with TOI over phone, Ashish Yadav said, “Since Neha underwent a minor surgery in the last week of January, she was advised complete bed rest by doctors for a week. Therefore, we could not board the evacuation flight which took off on the night of January 31.”

Neha Yadav
“Like us, there are 23 other Indian nationals in Wuhan, including students and working professionals. All of us are ready to pay our expenses to return home. This city has turned into a ghost town. We are regularly sending distress message to every possible authority for help, but no one is helping us,” said his wife Neha.
“We alerted the Indian embassy about our situation. Before the January 22 lockdown of Wuhan, we were told that since coronavirus incubation period is just 14 days, the situation will normalise by first week of February. But the situation has now become critical. Just four days ago, the university authorities sent a team of 15 men, including policemen, doctors and nursing assistants, who inspected our health parameters, and warned us to get hospitalised if our body temperature rose above 37.5 degrees,” said Ashish, who teaches physics to students of Wuhan-based university. He lives with his wife in an apartment on the university campus.
The couple were married in November 2018 and exactly a year later, Neha moved to Wuhan.
“After surgery, I developed slight fever, which alarmed the university authorities. Therefore, a man used to visit our apartment twice a day to record our fever. Now, we are not even allowed to move out in Wuhan city. After persistent appeal to the Indian embassy, they have sent a letter, asking Wuhan authorities to let us travel to airport to board a flight to India. But the Wuhan authorities are demanding direct call or intervention of Indian ambassador or minister of external affairs to allow us to travel,” said Neha Yadav.
Like them, Annem Jyothi and Dontamsetti Satya Sai Krishna, the two employees of TCL CSOT (Telephone Communication Limited China Star Optoelectronics Technology) -- a partially state-owned Chinese multinational electronics company, wrote to TOI, “We are stuck in Wuhan. Please help us get out of the city. We can’t live any longer here.”
Ashwani, an Indian-born British national, also made appeal for help. Her passport is with the British high commission and she has no one to help her. Her husband was evacuated a few days back, but she got stuck in Wuhan.