New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta has said that a long-serving employee at the New Zealand High Commission in India has died of Covid-19, The Indian Express reported on Thursday. The minister said the employee died on May 16 in a hospital.
This is the same staffer, an Indian citizen, for whom the embassy had sought help on social media from the youth unit of the Congress on May 2. The embassy had tweeted, asking the youth outfit for assistance, but deleted it soon afterwards. After that, the High Commission said their appeal was misinterpreted and apologised for it.
However, the Indian Youth Congress showed up at the New Zealand High Commission building in Delhi and delivered the oxygen cylinders. The embassy had accepted their help and thanked the organisation as the health condition of the patient inside the embassy was critical.
“I was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of a long-serving New Zealand High Commission employee in New Delhi,” said Mahuta, according to New Zealand Herald. “Our thoughts and aroha [sympathies] are with the family at this time. Any loss of life is extremely sad, and I know the Mfat [Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade] whanau [extended family] will be grieving at this time, and they need time to process what has happened.”
The employee had been working at the embassy since 1986.
Meanwhile, New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs told RNZ that two employees in New Delhi had returned to the country after India began reporting a surge in Covid-19 cases.
A spokesperson at the High Commission in New Delhi said there were measures put in place to treat employees or their families if they fall sick. “We have enough medical equipment and supplies to meet our needs,” the spokesperson said. “More broadly, we have provisions in place to mitigate the risk of Covid-19 to staff and their families overseas. All outbound New Zealand staff are vaccinated against Covid-19, and posted staff can choose to return to New Zealand.”
India, which has been reeling under the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, has had a difficult time tackling the rise in infections. The country’s healthcare infrastructure took a beating amid an unprecedented surge in new cases, with depleting medical resources, including medical oxygen and drugs. The collapse in the healthcare systems first began in the national Capital Delhi and a few more states also reported a lack of medical facilities, including oxygen and certain drugs used to treat Covid-19 patients.
India on Thursday recorded 2,76,110 new coronavirus cases, taking the total count of infections to 2,57,72,440 since the pandemic broke out in January 2020. The country’s toll rose to 2,87,122 as it registered 3,874 deaths in the last day.
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