“After 11 months of misery,I’m still stranded in India with my elderly mother who has multiple medical conditions and mobility issues,” said Sunny,who chose not to use his last name. “To make things worse for us,we are living in an area which is experiencing a tsunami of COVID-19 infections.”
More than 9000 Australians have registered with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as wanting to come home. At the end of April,all direct flights from India to Australia were halted for three weeks asthe number of COVID-19 cases in hotel quarantine rose dramatically,the majority detected in people arriving from India.
India’s healthcare system has been overwhelmed by a second wave of COVID-19,with total infections passing 21 million and more than 230,000 deaths.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Friday flights would resume on May 15 andmore than 1000 people were expected to return by the end of June.
However,those who tested positive for COVID-19 would not be able to return to Australia on chartered repatriation flights to protect Australia against a third wave,Mr Morrison said.
Sunny said he and his mother were in “fear for our lives”,with high rates of COVID-19 on his street in Delhi.