Khamis Hassan Bakari, a 39-year-old Tanzanian doctor, is one of more than 4,000 foreigners stranded in Wuhan due to the pneumonia epidemic.

The crowded supermarket in Wuhan City, Hubei Province is now virtually devoid of people due to fear of pneumonia. Apart from Bakari, only two others went shopping in this supermarket.

"Everyone is scared. Afraid to meet anyone. You don't even want to go to the supermarket and touch the products you buy," Bakari said.

China has blocked many cities with more than 50 million people to control the pneumonia caused by the corona virus strain. The street is empty. Public transportation is prohibited. Lunar New Year holidays become lonely.

While rich countries like the US and Japan have been conducting plans to evacuate people from Wuhan, Africans like Bakari have little chance of leaving the city amid the blockade.

"I feel like I'm stuck here," said Abel, an Ethiopian student at Wuhan University of Science and Technology. Like many other students, Abel worried about losing the scholarship if she expressed her concern and angered the local authorities at this time.

In 2018, there were more than 80,000 African students in China, second only to Asia in the number of foreign students in the country, of which more than 4,000 are studying in Wuhan.

None of them anticipated the current situation. No one knows how long the blockade will last and the way the virus will spread. The Botswana government expressed concern about the supply of food and drinking water for students in China, while the Kenyan government is seeking to fend off allegations of student neglect.

Therefore, Bakari and a group of Tanzanian doctors studying in China regularly update on the social network about the outbreak of pneumonia for more than 400 fellow students in Wuhan as well as hundreds of people from the East nation. Africa in China.

"They don't know exactly what is happening here," Bakari said, adding that his team updated the news mainly in Swahili, the main language in East Africa, so that more people could follow it easily. "We are all a family," Bakari's group wrote on Twitter on January 28 to encourage Africans to comply with the epidemic.

Worry is understandable when the richest country in Africa, South Africa also has no plans to evacuate people in Wuhan. The South African government requires students studying in China to strictly follow university guidelines and warn of the consequences if they leave Wuhan city on their own.

Meanwhile, King Morocco Mahammed VI has asked the government of the country to repatriate 100 citizens in Wuhan. Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune also ordered the immediate evacuation of 36 citizens in Wuhan, most of whom were students.

Talking on the phone, Bakari freely shared about the life between the blockade order in Wuhan. "As a doctor, I know what to do in the current stressful situation. We have begun to find ways to overcome this challenge," Bakari said.

To reassure people, Bakari's team recommends exercising for at least 20 minutes a day and restricting online to avoid being affected by false rumors.

The group cited the video of a Congolese student being sick at a Chinese hospital circulating online, which triggered fears of a pneumonia outbreak. "In fact, that male student suffered from kidney stones. We have not recorded any cases of foreign students in Wuhan infected with the virus," Bakari said.

A Ghanaian student said Wuhan University of Science and Technology officials warned students not to share videos, photos or messages about pneumonia on WeChat and threatened to disconnect WiFi if they did so. He said students only try to find out about the current situation and added that they want to leave China as soon as traffic is resumed.

"This is not the time to be adventurous. There should be no panic at this time," warns Edward Boateng, Ghana's ambassador to China. African diplomatic missions in Beijing are seeking to help students through United Nations immigration agencies and many other organizations.

Dr. Hilal Kizwi, a member of Bakari's group, said the current situation is quite chaotic, especially for newly arrived African students and people who do not speak Chinese. He said the virus first appeared with flu-like symptoms. Later, health officials warned him and many others in a local hospital to be careful and cover his mouth when interacting with others.

Patients began to die while the number of people hospitalized increased. Supplies of masks and other medical supplies have become less and less. In the end, many students decided to leave school.

"I feel like I'm in captivity. The only thing I can do is talk to my family that I'm fine and everything is fine," Kizwi said after the evening prayer. He felt that everything was fine until he heard that a local doctor had died of a virus. Since then, every time he went out, he used to wear two masks instead of one as before.

Kizwi said more students had contacted the Tanzanian embassy to try to leave Wuhan and were told they were working with local authorities on the issue. "However, I did not expect it," Kizwi said.

Bakari said foreigners cannot do much in the current situation, as police constantly monitor people entering and leaving the city. Most supermarkets and drugstores are closed. There was only one store open at Tongji Medical University, where Kizwi was studying, but the goods quickly ran out.

Bakari said his team collected phone numbers for international student union representatives at universities in Wuhan so students could seek help. Some students receive thermometers and are visited every day. Bakari said at his school, masks are given to students daily.

"Until yesterday, the school was still providing us with things every day," Bakari said, receiving chocolate, cake, sugar, cooking oil and water. "Today, there is a new announcement that if we want to travel around the city, we must register with the local government. They provide us with a telephone number and we must call them to request a ride or other support ".

"We appreciate what they are doing," Bakari praised the Chinese government's response to the outbreak. However, Bakari said there were no plans to go out again.

After going to the supermarket and buying enough vegetables, milk powder to supplement nutrition when eggs, meat or fish are no longer an appropriate choice due to fear of virus spread, Bakari can now temporarily rest assured indoors to ensure assumed the role of investigator, therapist and informant about pneumonia in Wuhan.

The situation may be very tiring, but Bakari said "we really can't sleep these days".