A resident applies for a volunteer project in Wuchang District of Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Feb. 23, 2020. More than 10,000 people in Wuhan have applied for a volunteer project, shortly after its kick-off on Sunday morning. Authorities announced the project of recruiting volunteers to buy and deliver groceries and other essentials to local residents, as it is difficult to buy daily necessity for some residents after the lockdown of the city. Photo: Xinhua

Hundreds of people from outside of Hubei Province, epicenter of the COVID-19, are stuck in the province and suffering from homelessness, shortages of food and protective equipment after the provincial lockdown. The reasons they came to Hubei vary, but they now share the same appeal - waiting for the victory against the virus and returning home as soon as possible.

There is no report giving an exact number of how many people are stranded in Wuhan, capital of Hubei. But in a report by the Xinhua News Agency on Tuesday, there are 800 people in the two groups the reporter reached. In another group reported by thecover.cn, there are 236.

Chinese media outlet China Youth Daily also reported more than 200 such people are stranded in Wuhan. Some came to Wuhan for surgery, some are migrant workers, some are parents accompanying children for art tests, and some were just changing transport methods on January 23, the day the city was locked down to control the virus spread.

As areas in Hubei successively locked down, such outsiders were stranded in the province. The situation is especially difficult for migrant workers who rely on short-term jobs and do not have much money, according to outsiders and local volunteers reached by the Global Times.

Some migrant workers became tramps as they used up their money and had no place to live, a local volunteer, who requested anonymity, told the Global Times on Wednesday. Some of the workers loiter in daylight and sleep at parks and tunnels at night, showed a video provided by the volunteer.

As few supermarkets and shops are open and no public transport is running in Hubei amid the lockdown, some migrant people even ate leftover food and wore used facial masks from trash cans, another volunteer of a local non-governmental rescue team said. The team has been handing out facial masks, food and quilts for them.

A couple of parents who took their child aged over 1 year to Wuhan's hospital for treatment told the volunteer that they have spent more than 10,000 yuan ($1,424) to stay in a hotel after the hospital was requisitioned for the COVID-19 infection treatment. Now they are almost out of money and were worried about the child's health and daily food support, so they asked the volunteers for help.

The troubled migrant people have attracted the attention of civil volunteer organizations and the government.

The civil affairs bureau of Wuhan opened on Monday hotlines and rescue application channels to help the migrants, said the Hubei government on Tuesday on its Sina Weibo.

The related authorities also are working to place the homeless migrants, media reports said.

A resident from Nanchang, East China's Jiangxi Province told the Global Times on Wednesday that he came to Hubei's Huanggang to visit relatives on January 22 and has been stuck there for more than one month. 

As Huanggang has reported no more confirmed infections these days, the resident called on the local government to release the healthy outsiders to resume work.

The migrants all are waiting for the victory of the battle against the coronavirus, and desire to return home as soon as possible though some of them even don't have enough money to go back, volunteers said.