Vietnam has repatriated roughly 1,000 Vietnamese citizens from India as Covid-19 is sweeping the South Asia country.

Ambassador of Vietnam to India, Nepal and Bhutan Pham Sanh Chau and Vietnamese students at Indira Gandhi International Airport in July 2020 before returning to Vietnam. Photos: Ambassador's Facebook

Only around 100 Vietnamese people are staying in India and the Vietnamese mission in India continues giving support to them, according to Do Thanh Hai, Counselor and Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy of Vietnam in India. 

The embassy is keeping in touch with the Vietnamese citizens to support them if needed, Hai said in an interview with the Voice of Vietnam (VOV) published on April 26. 

Hai named a series of difficulties for Vietnamese people living in India at this time, including hard access to essential goods and services, movement restrictions, psychological stress, and high risk of serious illness or death if being infected due to overload health system.

In case of emergency, Vietnamese citizens can contact the embassy via its citizen protection hotline at +91-7303-625-588 or the citizen protection switchboard at +84-981-848-484.

Meanwhile, Spokesperson of Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Le Thi Thu Hang said on April 26 that Vietnam keeps an eye on the pandemic situation in India and gets ready to support the Indian government and people in this hard times.

"We believe that India will soon contain the pandemic," local media quoted Hang as saying. 

Ambassador Pham Sanh Chau at Apollo Hospitals Delhi on April 22. Photos: Ambassador's Facebook

Vietnamese Ambassador to India, Nepal and Bhutan Pham Sanh Chau said he himself accompanied an embassy staff to the hospital to get a bed there when this person was infected with Covid-19 in the face of surging infections.

The Tuoi Tre newspaper cited Chau in a letter he sent to the staff of the Vietnamese embassy in New Delhi amid overloaded medical system there. 

Vu Luong, a Vietnamese citizen is working in Noida, India, attributed the pandemic-ravaged situation in India to people’s negligence and failure of safety rules, Zing reported. 

Yogita Limaye, India correspondent, BBC News said that the actual number of infections and deaths daily was higher than the reported figures. Foreign media reported that India witnessed approximately 300,000 cases and 2,000 deaths daily over the last few days.

Coronavirus infections in India have been hitting record peaks for the past few days and the death toll has been on the rise. But the official death count doesn’t tell the full story, the DW reported.