Taiwan keeps obstructing compatriots' return from coronavirus-hit Hubei

Medical workers at an ICU ward of the First Hospital of Wuhan City in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Feb. 22, 2020. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu)

The number of Taiwan compatriots who have applied to local authorities in Hubei to return home has risen to 1,148 from 979 since Feb. 3 when a mainland chartered flight sent 247 people back to Taiwan.

WUHAN, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Taiwan authority has continued to obstruct the return of over 1,100 Taiwan compatriots from coronavirus-hit Hubei Province by turning down the mainland's new flight plan, according to the cross-Strait affairs office of Hubei.

The mainland side has recently proposed through the cross-Strait civil aviation contact channel to send the Taiwan compatriots by six chartered flights to be arranged by airlines from both the mainland and Taiwan in a bid to complete the transportation within a week.

The number of Taiwan compatriots who have applied to local authorities in Hubei to return home has risen to 1,148 from 979 since Feb. 3 when a mainland chartered flight sent 247 people back to Taiwan.

The stranded compatriots have been under self-monitored quarantine in places across the Hubei province for over four weeks with no infection of the novel coronavirus found among them. They are all eager to return to work, go back to school or seek medical treatment in Taiwan, said the office. ■