Around 1,017,689 South Korean citizens have signed apetitionseeking President Moon Jae-in’s impeachment over his handling of the novel coronavirus or COVID-19 outbreak in the country as of Thursday afternoon. The number of signees increased twice from 4 lakh on Wednesday morning, showing the growing discontent among the public.
The petition started on February 4 on the presidential site. For an official response from Blue House, the president’s administration, the petition should garner 200,000 signatures in a month.
The author of the petition criticised Moon for sending protective masks to China, instead of banning visitors from the country.
“We cannot just watch this catastrophe anymore… I call for impeachment,” the petitionerwrote.
Outside China, where the virus originated from, South Korea has reported the largest outbreak of the virus. At present, the country has 1,766 confirmed cases of the virus, after 171 new cases were reported on Thursday morning. As of now, 13 South Korean citizens have also died because of the virus.
Across the world, the death toll from the novel coronavirus crossed 2,800, and the number of cases reached 82,000. In China, 2,747 people have died from the virus and over 78,000 infected.
Meanwhile, earlier today, special flights of the Indian Air Force and Air India evacuated foreigners and Indians from coronavirus-hit Wuhan in China, and quarantined cruise ship, Diamond Princess, in Japan.
The special IAF flight that returned to India with 76 Indian nationals had 23 from Bangladesh, six from China, two each from Myanmar and Maldives and one each from South Africa, USA and Madagascar on board. Following their thermal screening, the evacuees are being kept in the ITBP quarantine facility in Chhawla, Delhi.
Also Read:Coronavirus Outbreak: IAF, Air India Evacuate 112 From Wuhan, Cruise Ship In Japan