A staffer of the Philippine Embassy in India has died of COVID-19, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Monday.
The DFA said the fatality was a Filipino career personnel working at the Philippine Embassy in New Delhi.
DFA Office of Strategic Communication and Research Executive Director Ivy Banzon-Abalos said no details or statement regarding the incident would be issued for now.
The department announced the fatality after the South Asian nation reported more than 4,000 new deaths over the weekend.
According to the Philippines’ envoy to India Ramon Bagatsing, two Filipinos in India had died from COVID-19.
Bagatsing said the two were diagnosed with COVID-19 last April 23 and died three days later, as India battles a raging COVID-19 surge which saw over a million new COVID-19 cases recorded this week alone.
“It is really bad here. Two Filipinos died, and they died within three days, April 23 to 26. It was very fast. The virus is a traitor. They call it double mutant strain,” Bagatsing said during the Laging Handa online briefing.
“Those who died are of managerial level. I cannot give further details to give due respect to the family,” he added.
Bagatsing said 20 other Filipinos in India are also infected with COVID-19.
“They are confined, isolated,” he said. “We are doing everything we can to help them given the situation.”
India has been posting record-high coronavirus cases and deaths, with 366,161 new infections and 3,754 deaths on Monday.
With hospitals fully occupied and crematoriums overwhelmed, several Indian states enforced strict lockdowns to limit mobility and arrest the upsurge in new infections.
