Indian and Pakistani students in China’s Hubei province, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, have made desperate pleas to their governments to evacuate them after Chinese officials decided to convert their university gymnasiums and dormitories into makeshift hospitals amid a big surge in infection cases.

The death toll from the epidemic surged to 1,367 with 254 deaths on Wednesday, highest in a day, raising concerns that the virus is nowhere near slowing down.

There were 52,526 confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland at the end of Wednesday. On Wednesday, Wuhan and Hubei province itself reported 14,840 new confirmed cases to local health officials said.

This big increase in cases has put pressure on local officials to add more hospital beds.

Three Indian students studying at Hubei University of Chinese Medicine made desperate pleas to the Indian government to evacuate them after the university announced plans to convert the gym into a hospital.

India has already evacuated 647 Indian nationals, mostly students from Wuhan and Hubei. Ten Indians could not board the two special flights because of fever. Indian officials say around 80 to 100 Indians are still left in the area.

“Our university is going to use the gymnasium as the shelter to receive the confirmed cases,” the university said in a notice.

The university earlier was not on the list but now an official notification has been issued to include it, the notice said. “Now we need to cooperate. For whole Wuhan, it’s a ‘war’ period. Hope everyone can understand.