More than 10 days since the Chinese government-imposed lockdown on the city of Wuhan, the ground zero of the deadly coronavirus and there is no sign of letting it up.

Daunting accounts of food shortage crisis, overcrowded hospitals, empty streets and dropping supplies masks and simple things like hand sanitizers.

Cornelius Mulili, a student stranded in the Wuhan lockdown says the situation has been terrible, not close to hospitable since the lockdown.

The severe and extreme restriction meant to thwart the spread of the disease has made simple tasks such as shopping and going to school nearly impossible.

He still wonders why the Kenyan government has not taken any action to evacuate them.

“Most countries are evacuating their nationals out of this place, there are talks of the situations getting worse in the coming few weeks. Being here is frightening we just wake up every day and hoping for the best,” says Cornelius. 

According to Cornelius being unable to access healthcare and food has left them at the mercies of the well-wishers. “Healthcare is inaccessible in most corners of the city, in my university, for instance, there is no clinic, the nearest hospital is kilometers away and for now we cannot access since there are not available transport,” narrated Cornelius. 

He added that accessing food is turning out to be problematic since most schools are not offering anything to sustain the students and with no single shop opened they will soon run out of their supplies.

Cornelius notes life was blissful before the deadly virus took over, his academics is deteriorating and he says he misses the normal things he used to do before the lockdown like going to class, the office and going for his routine exercises to keep fit.

He says the situation is so stressful; taking a simple nap is becoming a difficult task.
 

“Most of us are awake at night, it is just horrible, it is 5 am here and I haven’t slept the whole night. Most people are developing psychological issues and people are suffering in silence since we can’t even visit each other. The lockdown has forced us to stay put in our rooms doing absolutely nothing, we cannot go outside out of fear,” he says.

More than 56 million people in almost 20 Chinese cities, including Wuhan, have been prevented from traveling, underlining the gravity of the crisis.

Reports have indicated that at least 85 Kenyan students are stuck in Wuhan, a city in China where the deadly Coronavirus broke.