Indian student dies in China, family urges S Jaishankar to bring back his body

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Chennai: Abdul Sheikh, a 22-year-old student from Tamil Nadu has died from an illness in China, and now his family has requested the foreign ministry to help them bring his body. Shiekh has been studying in China for the past five years. As per reports, he returned to India in the last months of 2022 but had to return to China on December 11. After Sheikh completed his quarantine period in China, he interned at the Qiqihar Medical University in northeast China’s Heilongjiang province. However, he fell sick and was soon admitted to the hospital in the intensive care unit (ICU) where he breathed his last. The bereaved family has also appealed for help from the Tamil Nadu government in bringing his body back. 

Meanwhile, China continues to battle a nationwide outbreak of the coronavirus after abruptly easing restrictions that were in place for much of the pandemic. The World Health Organization (WHO) has again urged China to regularly share its specific and real-time data on the COVID-19 situation in the country, amid a massive surge in coronavirus cases after Beijing relaxed its strict "zero-COVID" policy. The global health agency has asked Chinese health officials to share data on genetic sequencing, hospitalisations, deaths, and vaccinations.

A high-level meeting took place between officials from WHO and China on the current surge in COVID-19 cases to seek further information on the situation, and to offer WHO's expertise and further support.

Employees in local hospitals have been working overtime during the holidays to ensure the treatment of patients amid the epidemic wave as part of the overall coordination of the epidemic prevention and control departments to optimize epidemic prevention policies and ensure scientific treatment, according to Global Times. Districts in Shanghai, including Jiading, Minhang, and Songjiang have improved their management measures for graded treatment to divert non-urgent COVID patients from top-tier hospitals as infections and critical cases peaked in recent days.