The U.S. government told its citizens to leave India as soon as possible as the country’s Covid-19 crisis worsens at an astonishing pace.
In a Level 4 travel advisory --- the highest issued by the State Department -- U.S. citizens were told “not to travel to India or to leave as soon as it is safe to do so.” There are 14 direct daily flights between India and the U.S. and other services that connect through Europe, the department said.
Indian authorities and hospitals are struggling to cope with unprecedented Covid infections and deaths. Official data on Thursday showed new cases rose by a staggering 379,257 over the prior 24 hours, another record, while 3,645 additional lives were lost. More than 204,800 people have died. The South Asian nation now has the world’s fastest-growing caseload with 18.4 million confirmed instances. The virus has gripped India’s populace with a severity not seen in its first wave.
Mass funeral pyres, lines of ambulances outside overcrowded hospitals and desperate pleas on social media for oxygen underscore how grossly unprepared India’s federal and state governments are to tackle the latest coronavirus wave.
The unfolding tragedy is prompting some of the world’s biggest corporations to organize aid. Amazon.com Inc. is harnessing its global logistics supply chain to airlift 100 ICU ventilator units from the U.S., and the equipment will reach India in the next two weeks. Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said he was “heartbroken” by the situation and the tech behemoth is using its voice, resources and technology to aid relief efforts and help purchase oxygen concentrators.
Blackstone Group Inc.’s Chairman Stephen Schwarzman said his private equity firm is committing $5 million to support India’s Covid relief and vaccination services to “marginalized communities.” Local companies, too, are wading in, with the philanthropic arm of India’s most valuable company -- Reliance Industries Ltd., controlled by Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani -- pledging to create, commission and manage 100 ICU beds that will become operational in mid next month.
As thousands of doctors, nurses and non-medical professionals work around-the-clock to save what patients they can, the rest of the world is drawing up their bridges.
Australia earlier this week banned all flights from India to relieve pressure on the nation’s system of mainly quarantining returned residents from overseas in inner-city hotels, while the U.K. has barred any visitor who’s been in India in the previous 10 days from entering. British and Irish nationals arriving in England from India must quarantine in a hotel.
U.S. Tells Citizens to Get Out of India as Covid Crisis Worsens - Bloomberg
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