Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming urged Bangladeshi businesses not to switch over its supply chain to any other countries as an alternative to China in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

175 Nepalis who were stranded in Hubei Province of China after the outbreak of COVID-19 arrived in Kathmandu on a chartered Nepal Airlines plane.

Indian port authorities have decided not to allow the disembarkation of crew of ships from China, as well as Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand and Singapore, to avoid the spreading of the deadly coronavirus. "Disembarkation of crew of ships from China, Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand and Singapore are not allowed in order to avoid any risk of coronavirus spreading here. This condition is applicable in all the Indian ports," S. Senthilnathan, Health Officer, Chennai Port, told IANS.

The visiting IMF mission has asked Islamabad "to reduce its trade and commerce reliance on Beijing" and look for other international options by signing free trade agreements (FTA) with other countries too, a media report said on Friday.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has directed the Foreign Office (FO) to take every possible step to help Pakistani students stuck in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

China says it stands ready to strengthen cooperation on the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with Sri Lanka for mutual benefits.

The Pakistan Senate has unanimously passed a resolution expressing solidarity with and support for China in combating the deadly novel coronavirus.

Rapid spread of the coronavirus in China has forced several factories to defer their plans to open shop post Lunar New Year holiday to next month

Nepal's National Human Rights Commission directed the government to immediately bring back Nepalis from Hubei, the epicentre of coronavirus outbreak, as students stuck in the Chinese province have started making frantic calls for evacuation

China has asserted that it is not wavering from its commitment to assist Pakistan in the second, people-centric phase of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)

Pakistan's Edhi Foundation has written a letter to Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, seeking permission to “evacuate students from Wuhan city of China”.

Sri Lanka says it did not take a statement made by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi seriously on interference in Sri Lanka.

A week after Nepalis in China's Hubei province asked the Nepal government to evacuate them, officials in Kathmandu have little idea how the evacuation will progress.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has offered assistance to Chinese President Xi Jinping in the fight against the ongoing novel coronavirus epidemic that has killed over 800 people and infected around 35,000 in China.

The failure to arrange a flight has forced the government to scrap its plans to bring back 171 Bangladeshis from the locked-down cities in China amid a deadly coronavirus outbreak.