NEWS UPDATE: Penn student stranded in Wuhan says coronavirus outbreak is ‘like a zombie apocalypse’ – The Daily Pennsylvanian
Zhexuan Huang is stranded. Stuck in the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, the College sophomore is unable to return to Penn from his home city of Wuhan, China.
Huang has not been able to leave his house, let alone Wuhan, for weeks and has been forced to take a leave of absence from Penn this semester.
He was in the process of renewing his student visa in early January when the virus outbreak began and was told by the United States consulate in Guangzhou, China that he would receive his passport within approximately one week.
He had planned to leave for Penn on Jan. 15 but did not receive his visa by then. With his visa still pending and Wuhan on lockdown,
Huang cannot return to Penn this semester.
“I still haven’t received my passport back, and Wuhan is still completely blocked – like all the public transportation is closed, including airports, even highways,” Huang said.
Huang added that he has not left his home since Jan. 14. His parents both stopped working, although his father leaves the house once a week to buy groceries from supermarkets still open in the city.
Huang said trees block his view of the city streets from his apartment, but through drone footage circulating online, he can see how empty the city of 11 million has become.
“Some people fly their drones outside the city to see the view of the city right now,” he said.
“There are pretty much no cars on the street, like no people walking. The city is like a ghost city. It’s like a zombie apocalypse now.”
Before Wuhan went into lockdown on Jan. 23, Huang maintained hopes of returning to Penn. He spent time stuck indoors trying to keep up with schoolwork for his mathematical economics degree…..
https://www.thedp.com/article/2020/02/coronavirus-wuhan-penn-students-travel-trump-ban