A chronically ill couple under lockdown in India is begging the Australian government to rescue them, saying they “don’t want to die alone” in a Delhi hospital if they contract the coronavirus.
Sydney man Shyam Sardana, 63, and his wife Aruna, 60, travelled to Delhi on February 12 for a wedding and have been banned from returning home due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.
Although Mr and Mrs Sardana are not Australian citizens, they are permanent residents and their three sons live in Melbourne or Sydney.
Like thousands of Australian tourists and expatriates, the pair has been stuck in India since Tuesday, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi suddenly imposed a full lockdown and cancelled all flights in an attempt to slow the virus’s spread.
Officially about 980 people have coronavirus in India, but that figure could be much higher as testing has been slow.
“There will be a total ban on venturing out of your homes … forget what going out means,” Mr Modi told the nation.
India’s population of 1.3 billion people was given less than four hours’ notice.
Unable to get a flight home, the Sardanas have remained trapped.
If either of them contracts the coronavirus, it will likely be a death sentence: Mrs Sardana has abnormally high blood pressure, while Mr Sardana suffers from a serious heart condition and rheumatoid arthritis.
He has just two weeks’ left of medication.
“We both are high-risk vulnerable people and we will most likely die if we catch COVID-19,” Mr Sardana told The New Daily.
“Public hospitals in Delhi are not equipped to handle a pandemic like COVID-19.
We don’t want to die alone here without being able to say goodbye and giving a kiss on a forehead to our children.’’
The couple is too scared to leave their house for fear of contracting the coronavirus and of Indian police, who have been beating people who breach curfew with bamboo bats.
One of their sons, who lives in Sydney and wishes to remain anonymous to protect his job, told The New Daily he has been lobbying the federal government for help but hasn’t received any answers.
“My biggest fear is getting a call in the middle of the night from someone saying ‘Your parents have COVID-19’ and I won’t be able to get there,” he said.
“If something happens to my parents, we’ll lose our family members, but in my eyes the Australian government will lose its credibility.
“At a time when families need to stick together and support each other, they’re putting down dividing lines.
“If they don’t do anything, they will have blood on their hands if something goes wrong.”
In India, life under lockdown looks set to get even worse.
The poor are starving with nowhere to go, and street crime is reportedly increasing as millions of workers who lost their jobs due to the coronavirus resort to theft to survive.
When Mrs Sardana recently went outside in Delhi to visit the dentist, she was attacked by a pair of masked men on a motorbike who tried to snatch her necklace.
Now she is terrified of leaving the house.
“My wife is very stressed and very anxious because we are trapped here without any support and so far from our children,” Mr Sardana said.
“We want the Australian government to make an effort to help us get back home.
“We have tickets booked for a flight on the second of April and most likely many other Australians have done the same.
“We want the government to negotiate with the Indian government and let that flight leave for Australia.”
The post Couple stuck in India fear they will die from coronavirus without help from Australia appeared first on The New Daily.
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