Washington: More than 40 Indian-Americans and citizens of India have reportedly lost their lives due to the deadly coronavirus and the number of those having tested positive for the dreaded disease is likely over 1,500, according to community leaders in the US, now the global Covid-19 hotspot.
The US has become the world's first country to have registered more than 22,000 Covid-19 deaths till Monday, while the number of infections has crossed 5,54,007, according to latest Johns Hopkins University data.
New York, which has emerged as the epicenter of the Covid-19 in the US, along with adjoining New Jersey, account for majority of the death cases reported so far. Notably, New York and New Jersey have one of the highest concentrations of Indian-Americans in the country.
Among those who have died in the fight against the coronavirus, at least 17 are from Kerala, 10 from Gujarat, four from Punjab, two from Andhra Pradesh and one from Orissa. Majority of them are more than 60 years of age, except for one who was of 21 years of age. The death toll also included an Indian-American CEO of a New Jersey-based pharmaceutical company and several New York City cab drivers. Some of the victims are dying alone in hospitals, with family members and friends unable to be in close proximity during their final hours because the restrictions, and in some cases Indian citizens have had to be buried or cremated with minimum or no ceremony because of the travel ban.
The New York Taxi Workers Alliance, which is led by the Indian-American activist Bhairavi Desai, has said a business already in a crisis because of ride-hailing apps has been decimated by the coronavirus, with drivers’ WhatsApp groups filled with messages about those who are in hospital and those who have passed away. Although Indians in America are counted among the country's elites in terms of education and income, many work in areas that constitute the frontlines in the pandemic: doctors, nurses, cab drivers, truckers, grocery and convenience store workers, gas station attendants etc. Also among the dead are more than 40 workers of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority that runs the New York City subway and employs a large number of Indian-origin personnel.
Reports in the Pakistani media speak of more than 100 Pakistanis, who now dominate the cab and limousine trade, having died in the NY-NJ region, attributing the figure to Pakistani diplomats.
