A Maltese man who is critically ill with Covid-19 is set to be evacuated from India, where he was staying as part of a process to adopt a baby girl, via air ambulance on Tuesday.

Times of Malta quoted government sources in saying that the 47-year-old man had been in the Indian capital of New Delhi with his wife since the beginning of March to adopt a baby girl.

The couple contracted Covid-19 while they were making final arrangements to return to Malta, and the man’s condition took a turn for the worse last week, with doctors considering putting him in an induced coma at one point.

His condition has improved slightly in the last 24 hours, but the situation remains serious – especially as Indian hospitals run out of oxygen to use for ventilators.

The man has been at the Manavta Hospital outside New Delhi since 18 April.

He will be flown to Malta on an air ambulance contracted from France which is equipped with a ventilator, although it is not clear just yet whether his wife and their adopted daughter will accompany him.

The situation when the couple had travelled to India to complete the procedure to adopt the girl was still under control, but it has since deteriorated rapidly, especially after the emergence of a double mutant variant of the virus.