ALMATY — The governor of a Kazakh province bordering China said on Thursday he would seek the deportation of dozens of Chinese workers to defuse the local population's fears of coronavirus, news website Dalanews.kz reported. The Central Asian nation closed its border with China after the outbreak but has so far made no moves against Chinese who had arrived there earlier. Danial Akhmetov, governor of East Kazakhstan province, made the promise about deportations during a meeting with residents of the Zaisan region adjacent to China, according to Dalanews. An angry crowd gathered there in Thursday's early hours, alarmed by the sight of extra beds being delivered to a hospital amid rumors that the authorities planned to take in coronavirus patients from across the border.

Source: International New York Times February 20, 2020 18:11 UTC