KATHMANDU: The coronavirus that originated in Wuhan of China, has now swept through 176 countries, infected close to 221,268 people worldwide, and is responsible for more than 8,997 deaths as of March 19.

Citing the COVID-19’s transmission route, the social media users have gone sarcastic about the name China has given to reviving its ‘Silk Road’ the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and have asked it to rename ‘One Belt One Road One Virus.’

The twitter originating from Europe is getting ‘trending’ these days. Italy and Iran the second and third corona hard-hit countries are known to be soft towards China’s unabated expansionism and ‘imperialism’ in a new form.

#Iran & #Italy Are Paying A Hefty Price For Close Ties With Communist #China

The reason these 2 countries are suffering the most outside China is mainly due to their close ties with Beijing, primarily through the “One Belt, One Road, One Virus” initiativehttps://t.co/FvwW1ibgmm

— Indo-Pacific News (@IndoPac_Info) March 18, 2020

@kpsharmaoli @BhimRawal179 @jnkhanal @BishnuRimal @PradeepgyawaliK
One Belt One road पछी कम्रेडहरू One Belt One Road One Virus काे समर्थक ?

— ह्याकुलेश्वर बाबा (@LakkareMailo) March 19, 2020

Di negara ratusan juta orang ini, jika yg positif terus bertambah: Rumah Sakit yg takutnya tidak sanggup menangani situasi ini. Akan banyak yg tdk bisa menerima pertolongan. Dirawat di RS aja meninggal, apalagi dirawat mandiri dirumah. Jd lebih baik pemerintah fokus pd hal ini.? https://t.co/01yya0Iagt

— JANSEN SITINDAON (@jansen_jsp) March 18, 2020

Evil CCP sent Virus carriers to Italy to spread this deadly Chinese Virus to Europe. One Belt – One Road – One Virus.https://t.co/lpusujFcsx https://t.co/h2c7yGR0Iq pic.twitter.com/x1V7IkcapS

— Richard Ham (@richardham169) March 17, 2020

How does the Wuhan virus fit into the One Belt One Road strategy?

— Viktor Vaughn (@ViktorVaughn17) March 17, 2020

The Chinese claim about its successful taming of COVID-19 is also not much trustworthy as most of the information comes after manipulation by the state.

In this condition, supporting the BRI project or attempting to lead it further through Chinese workers can turn a call for being ‘hard hit’.

China is leading the world in the number of confirmed cases and deaths. What many people find shocking is that Italy and Iran are the second- and third-hardest hit nations in this outbreak.

Social media users say both countries, Iran and Italy, though geographically far from the epicenter of the outbreak, have been suffering now mainly due to their close ties with Beijing – especially through the BRI.

(With inputs from Agencies)