28/04/2021
📷: Burning funeral pyres of the patients who died of the coronavirus can be seen at a crematorium in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, April 27.
👉 The first shipment of critical medical supplies arrived in India Tuesday as the country continues to struggle with a catastrophic second wave of COVID-19 infections, a situation described as “beyond heartbreaking” by the head of the World Health Organization.
A plane from Britain filled with 100 ventilators and 95 oxygen concentrators, which collects atmospheric air and converts it into pure oxygen, landed at the airport in Delhi before dawn. The British high commission in India says a total of nine transport planes will deliver nearly 500 oxygen concentrators and 140 ventilators to the South Asian nation this week.
Other nations have also pledged to ship badly needed medical supplies to India. France has promised to send ventilators, oxygen generators and containers of liquid medical oxygen by next week, with Germany, Israel and Pakistan, India’s neighbor and longtime arch-enemy, sending personal protective gear, treatments and diagnostic tests along with ventilators and oxygen.
WHO chief Tedros Ghebreyesus told reporters in Geneva Monday the global health agency “is doing everything we can, providing critical equipment and supplies, including thousands of oxygen concentrators, prefabricated mobile field hospitals and laboratory supplies.”
He noted the WHO has already announced 2,600 extra WHO staff members will go to India to help with efforts to fight the disease.
The international assistance comes as India reported another 323,144 new confirmed COVID-19 cases Tuesday, marking the sixth consecutive day of more than 300,000 infections. The country’s health care system is nearing complete collapse, with hospitals crammed with so many coronavirus patients that authorities have been forced to convert train carriages into COVID isolation wards.
India also posted another 2,771 COVID-related deaths Tuesday, as crematories have been busy night and day burning people’s remains. The capital, New Delhi, remains under a lockdown that was extended Monday for another week. (AFP/VOA)
https://www.voanews.com/covid-19-pandemic/india-receives-first-shipment-critical-medical-supplies-covid-infection-rates.
Via VOA