22-year-old Indian student dies of illness in China, Family seeks Centre's help to bring body back

The family of a 22-year-old student from Tamil Nadu, who was studying medicine in China for the past five years, died of an illness, has sought the foreign ministry's help to bring his body back to the country.

As per reports, the student, identified as Abdul Sheikh, had been doing a medical internship in China towards the end of his course.

He had returned to India recently and went back to China on December 11.

Soon after landing in China and after a mandatory eight-day isolation on reaching China, Sheikh had been interning with Qiqihar Medical University in northeast China's Heilongjiang province.

As per the reports, later, the fell ill and had to be admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), where he died. Following this, the family of the student has sought the foreign ministry's help in bringing the back body.

The bereaved family has also appealed for help from the Tamil Nadu government.

Meanwhile, in the wake of rising COVID-19 cases, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has urged China to regularly share its specific and real-time data on the COVID situation in the country.

The health organization has China to provide data on genetic sequencing hospitalizations, deaths, and vaccinations.

In this regard, a high-level meeting took place between officials from WHO and China over the current surge in COVID-19 cases to seek further information on the situation.

WHO has also invited Chinese scientists to present detailed data on viral sequencing at a meeting of the Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution on 3 January.

It further stressed the importance of monitoring and the timely publication of data to help China and the global community to formulate accurate risk assessments and to inform effective responses.

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