Singapore and Kuwait now account for more than half of the total Indians abroad who are infected by the Wuhan Coronavirus. A total of 6200 such infections have been reported in countries around the world, more than half of which are living in the two countries mentioned. As per reports, more than 2300 infections among Indian nationals, a major portion of which lives in the dormitories of Singapore, were recorded till late last week and more than 1300 infections were reported among expatriate Indians in Kuwait.
Other countries where a sizeable number of Coronavirus infections among Indians have been reported are Bahrain and Qatar with five hundred each and Iran with the number at three hundred. As per reports, on April 16 the total number of Indians infected in 53 countries was 3,336 and a total of 40 Indians have been reported dead abroad.
The total number of infections among Indians abroad has almost doubled in the past 8 or 9 days as it stood at 3,336 on the 16th of April. Between the 18th of March, when the government had informed the parliament that the number was 276 as on that day, 255 of which were in Iran, and the 16th of April, it took a month almost for the number to reach 3,336 but the jump from that to 6,300 took only a little over a week.
The welfare and treatment of the infected Indians have reportedly featured in the conversations between the Prime Minister and the external affairs minister and their counterparts in countries such as Singapore and Kuwait. During a conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 23, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that his government will take care of the Indian migrant workers here as they take care of Singaporeans. In a recent conversation with PM Modi, his Kuwaiti counterpart Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled al-Hamad al-Sabah also said that his government “values the contributions of the large Indian community and would continue to ensure their safety and welfare in the present situation.”