Embassy suggests Thais leave Covid-hit India

Embassy suggests Thais leave Covid-hit India

Suchitra Durai, India's Ambassador to Thailand, shows respect before a portrait of Their Majesties the King and Queen for donated medical equipment to help fight Covid-19 in her country. (Photo courtesy of the Royal Household Bureau)
Suchitra Durai, India's Ambassador to Thailand, shows respect before a portrait of Their Majesties the King and Queen for donated medical equipment to help fight Covid-19 in her country. (Photo courtesy of the Royal Household Bureau)

The Thai embassy in New Delhi has recommended that Thai nationals in India leave the country due to its escalating Covid-19 crisis.

The embassy said on Tuesday that Thais who did not need to stay in the South Asian country should register to return home on repatriation flights set for Saturday from Chennai and May 15 from New Delhi.

It said the coronavirus had been spreading rapidly in India since mid-April and several medical facilities had already been overwhelmed.

Meanwhile, the Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) will today send humanitarian aid, including royally donated oxygen concentrators, to India to help the country in its fight against the Covid-19.

A source in the RTAF said it was preparing a special flight and either an Airbus A340 or a C130 transport aircraft would be used to send the supplies.

The flight will deliver oxygen concentrators and oxygen tanks, essential medical supplies donated by the Indian community in Thailand and papier-mache beds donated by Siam Cement Group (SCG).

The source said Their Majesties the King and Queen had asked Chirayu Isarangkun na Ayuthaya, a member of the Privy Council, to hand over the aid supplies to the Indian embassy in Thailand.

India has been hitting new highs almost every day for new infections and deaths as the virus crisis piles up pressure on the already overstretched hospitals in cities and spreads into rural regions.

It has been reported that medical equipment, including oxygen-generation plants, has been flown into the Indian capital of New Delhi from France and Germany as part of a huge international effort.

Hospitals in Delhi have also continued to make emergency appeals on social media for oxygen, with the latest appeal posted on Twitter by a children's hospital.

Do you like the content of this article?
COMMENT (2)