Exclusive/ Returned Albanian student tells the tale of the Chinese “coronavirus capital”

Josilda Ndreaj is the Albanian student who until recently lived in Chinese deadly coronavirus epicenter, Wuhan, but after a long and exhausting journey managed to return to her family in Golem. Josilda appealed to Top-Channel for help in returning to Albania and tells in an exclusive interview with the reporter Muhamed Veliu, about what it means living in the center of the deadly desease.

Asked about how she reacted to the news of the deadly outbreak, she says that the situation was totaly new to her and as such she tried to get all the information she could.

“The first thing I did was to get informed as much as possible, as this was a new situation for all of us and the information available was not yet sufficiently understood, especially of what virus the question was. I got information in various ways, mainly by reading articles from the Chinese media, as a first stage of understanding what was happening”, says Ndreaj.

She maintains that despite the situation, was not overridden by panic. “No I didn’t panic. I can’t say I panicked but tried to evaluate the situation as panicking is not the solution. I tried to keep my calm”.

Ndreaj says that in the Wuhan university campus where she studies, extensive measures were taken in order to prevent the spread of the virus, although none of the students were infected with it.

Asked about whether she required help from the Albanian embassy in Beijing, Ndreaj says: “I tried communicating with our embassy consul and asking for help, but should that my request in those moments was not very well-grounded as I could not understand what was happening. I was told that i should forward my request through an email to the embassy email address. But I didn’t do that as i decided to return to Albanian as soon as possible. I as insecure of the situation as things were happening very quickly. If I was to get infected there I wouldn’t get help from my family or the authorities, so I decided to distance myself until a better moment”.

In relation to other Albanian students in Wuhan, Nreaj says they were told to await instructions for the available means of transport or the possibilities of exiting Wuhan in view of the travel restrictions in place. “I traveled from Shian to Bejing, to Milan then to Albania. In each port i passed I was checked for symptoms. In Shian they checked the temperature in every metro rail station. In Albania as well I was checked as I was coming from China but I was cleared. When I arrived in Albania I was surprised because there was so much untrue or fabricated information in the media, so I need to clarify that the exploitation of click-baits or key-words to increase viewing figures is menacing. My friend inform me that their families are scared and panicking for the safety of their children living in other Chinese cities, because of these fake and ungrounded information”.

In conclusion Ndreaj expresses gratitude for the exposure received through Top-Channel, which made possible the help she got for her return.
“Soon after the report in Top-Channel many people came forward to help, and that was something that surprised me, it made me understand there are many positive people. I want to thank them and be grateful for the help in this difficult moment”, says Ndreaj.

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