Coronavirus: PM Modi writes to Xi Jinping, offers assistance

New Delhi, Feb 09: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has written a letter to President Xi Jinping, expressing India's solidarity with people of China over Coronavirus outbreak.

In the letter, the Prime Minister condoled the lives lost due to the coronavirus outbreak in China and offered India's assistance to deal with the situation.

PM Modi also thanked Xi for offering assistance in the evacuation of Indians from China's Hubei province.

"PM Modi offered India's assistance to China to face the challenge, besides conveying condolences at the unfortunate loss of lives due to the outbreak," official sources, quoted by news agency PTI, said.

The death toll in China's novel coronavirus outbreak has sharply risen to 803 with 86 new mortalities in a single day, mostly in the worst-affected Hubei province, while the total number of confirmed cases jumped to 37,000, Chinese health officials said.

Among the deaths, 81 are in Hubei province and its provincial capital Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus, two in Heilongjiang, as well as one in Beijing, Henan and Gansu, the commission said.