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In Bangalore, a city besieged by the disastrous second wave of coronavirus in India, Pippa Baxter and her young family remained stoic.
From their empty house, living in bags packed in anticipation, they could see a way out.
They are said to be on a repatriation flight home to Australia in just over a week, leaving a country where crematoria and cemeteries are swamped with the dead.
It would mean the end of Baxter’s constant anxiety for his two daughters, Kate, six, and Emma, four, who suffer from an illness that leaves her vulnerable to respiratory illnesses.
But, around 10 a.m. on Friday, Baxter’s phone rang.
An official from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade had bad news.
The flight was canceled and nothing else would be available until the end of June.
“There isn’t a lot we can take,” Baxter told The Guardian, just minutes after receiving the call from Dfat.
The ministry was acting on new restrictions, announced by Prime Minister Scott Morrison a day earlier, which cut direct flights from India by nearly a third to mitigate the risk of the country’s second wave, which broke records for daily transmissions caused massive death.
Baxter and her husband, Chad, teachers in India for two years, have seen the situation deteriorate rapidly from their suburb of Rajanukunte in the northern suburbs of Bangalore.
“There is Covid everywhere. We just locked ourselves in our house, we isolate ourselves and we continue to isolate ourselves… but it’s literally everywhere, ”she says.
“The shops are closed. You can get food deliveries, but obviously you are aware that you have too many deliveries because the likelihood of that person having Covid is too high.
“We’re just trying to stock up. It’s like being in a war zone.
Bibhas Dutt was an Australian who was fortunate enough to escape India before the new restrictions.
Dutt returned to Delhi in 2019, before Covid, to attend weddings with his family and planned to live there.
But money got tight in Wave 2, and he accessed the retirement pension early to pass it.
He spent $ 5,500 on a flight back to Sydney.
“I felt so lucky when I was on this flight that took off from Delhi,” he told the 40s Guardian. “I felt like I was in that movie, 2012, where everything was on fire and I was on this flight.”
The chef is preparing to start his life over in Australia, finding a new job and a new home.
The solution is not to cut off flights to people like him who are trying to escape, he says. Facilities like Howard Springs, which he calls “perfect”, should be expanded and used to reduce the risk of any quarantine outbreak.
“Right now it’s out of control in India,” he says. “I think the government shouldn’t stop or cut back on flights, but plan to send at least two flights to India or whatever so that they can get them steadily.”
Even those offered seats on repatriation flights are not safe.
Flights only depart from Delhi and Chennai, two epicenters of the second wave. This leaves those in other regions facing a risky trip to fly.
“To get to Delhi, we have to take a domestic flight and go for a Covid test at one of Qantas’ testing facilities,” Baxter explains. “Obviously we’ll have to take a taxi to the test center and stay overnight so we can catch the flight.”
“So we’re going to one of the epicenters of the virus to try to get away, and then if we’re unlucky enough to catch Covid on this treacherous trip, we won’t be allowed to resume our repatriation flight to Australia. . “
The more the second wave rages, the more difficult it becomes.
Other countries have considered or implemented travel bans, restrictions or warnings for India.
The UK last week added India to its ‘red list’ of countries, banning non-UK and non-Irish citizens from traveling to the UK from India.
Hong Kong, Pakistan and New Zealand have also imposed temporary bans on travelers from India.
There is also some agitation for a total suspension of travel to Australia, aired mainly by the Prime Minister of Western Australia, Mark McGowan. His state is facing a quarantine epidemic linked to travelers returning from India.
A similar quarantine outbreak has been observed in Howard Springs, but Northern Territory Minister of Health Natasha Fyles says her government has a “humanitarian responsibility” to repatriate vulnerable Australians.
For Baxter, there is little choice but to wait.
“There are literally no options available except to row a boat alone in Australia.”
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