Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The Vietnamese community in India faces fear anduncertainty as COVID-19 spreads virtually unchecked in the country.

Indiais currently witnessing the worst COVID-19 surge in the world withinfections and deaths seeing record spikes on a daily basis. More than 1million new cases have been reported over the past three days, bringing thenation’s healthcare system to its knees and pushing the country into anunprecedented crisis.

Thedevastating situation has put millions of lives and livelihoods at risk, includingamong the Vietnamese expat community.

HuynhThuy Vy, a Vietnamese expat in Chennai Capital in Tamil Nadu State, told theVietnam News Agency that things have been much worse since the resurgence ofthe pandemic last month.

Herbeauty salon has received few customers lately and would be closed for the nextseveral days.

Travellingand getting access to essentials have become difficult and Vy said herfamily tried to avoid going outside and maintain a healthy diet during thepandemic.

Sheeven stored a range of different types of medicine just in case.

“Thecost of hospital treatment has been incredibly expensive. Plus hospitals arealready overcrowded and have a severe shortage of health staff and medicalequipment and supplies,” she said.

TamiNadu is among the states hit hard by the second wave of COVID-19 with more than15,000 newly infected cases added daily in the last few days, and active casesas of April 26 topping 100,000 cases.

Thelocal government has announced stringent curbs, including the closure ofshopping complex, malls, beauty spas and salons. A complete lockdown is set tobe applied on May 2.

Vysaid a friend of her family flew to India for healthcare treatment but gotstuck due to the pandemic.

“Theyare struggling to get back home on the next rescue flight, but I’m not sure ifthey managed to do that as the pandemic is getting worse,” she said.

NguyenViet Thanh, a PhD student at Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology inOdisha State, also expressed concern about the COVID-19 crisis.

Whenthe first wave of coronavirus hit India last September, Thanh had to return toVietnam due to the closure of the school. He recently returned to India tofinish his studies, but doing so is impossible amid the crisis.

Thanhsaid what surprised him the most was that many people did not wear face masksand still gathered in temples or at street food stalls without keeping physicaldistance.

Someparts of his school campus have been used as isolation areas for COVID-19patients. Thanh said all he could do now was to avoid gatherings, wear masksand gloves and wash his hands properly.

Vyand Thanh are among those lucky to be healthy in the epicentre of thepandemic. On Saturday, AFP reported India hit the rate of one COVID-19 death injust under every four minutes in Delhi. 

Overwhelmed

Asthe healthcare system is already overwhelmed and unable to take care of localpeople, the risk of serious illness or death of foreign residents is very highif they get infected.

Nhan,a Vietnamese engineer working for the Vietnamese Embassy in the capital NewDelhi, was left in critical condition after contracting the coronavirus.

Ina letter, Vietnam Ambassador to India Pham Sanh Chau sent to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper April 25, hewrote to the infected engineer: "Nhan, please don't die!"

Theengineer had a constant high fever and a blood oxygen level down below 90 percent. He was at high risk of superinfection and needed to go to ahospital immediately.

Heneeded a COVID-19 test to be hospitalised and had to wait three days for a testas most testing facilities were overloaded. After three days of waiting,he received his positive result. 

Withthe embassy’s support, Nhan was finally hospitalised for treatment afterthree hospitals refused to receive him. He received the oxygen cylinder whenhis oxygen level had fallen below 80 per cent.

DoThanh Hai, Counselor and Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Vietnam inIndia, said most of the 1,000 registered Vietnamese expats in India had gone home. 

Currently,only about 100 Vietnamese expats remain scattered across India and theembassy has kept in touch with them to give support when needed.

Haisaid a strict lockdown had been imposed in New Delhi and travelling had becomedifficult, so the Embassy had sent people to collect and supply food forthose in need.

Headded that the embassy had not received any urgent requests from the Vietnamesecommunity, except for a few COVID-19 infected Vietnamese engineers involved inthe construction project of the embassy in the capital New Delhi recently.

Inthe context of the intense outbreak, the embassy had to switch to remote workbut had maintained basic activities to serve the protection of citizens whennecessary.

Anembassy official had also been infected and was currently in quarantine. Theofficial was in good health and was making positive progress, he said./.