The evacuated diplomat, who was accompanied by his wife and four children, has been taken to a local infectious diseases hospital, whereas his family has been transported to the Interior Ministry hospital in the Polish capital. They will all be tested for the Indian strain of Covid-19, Doctor Artur Zaczyński, a physician at the ministry hospital, said on Sunday.
Leszek Szymański/PAP

A Polish diplomat with a severe case of Covid-19 has been flown home from India aboard a special aircraft.

The aircraft landed in Warsaw on Sunday.

The evacuated diplomat, who was accompanied by his wife and four children, has been taken to a local infectious diseases hospital, whereas his family has been transported to the Interior Ministry hospital in the Polish capital. They will all be tested for the Indian strain of Covid-19, Doctor Artur Zaczyński, a physician at the ministry hospital, said on Sunday.

The evacuation was prepared in accordance with all safety procedures and in collaboration with the Chief Sanitary Inspectorate.

“The situation in India is dramatic. There is no (medical) oxygen, there are no free hospital beds,” the director of the Government Security Centre said, adding that it was necessary to evacuate the Pole since diplomats could not count on medical assistance in the country.

For the fourth consecutive day, India, on Sunday, set a global daily record of new coronavirus infections, spurred on by an insidious new variant.

The 349,691 confirmed infections over the past day brought India’s total to more than 16.9 million cases, behind only the United States. The Indian Health Ministry reported another 2,767 deaths in the past 24 hours, pushing the country’s death toll to 192,311.

Following the massive surge in Covid cases hospitals in the capital and across the country have had to start turning away patients because they have run out of oxygen.