emergency aid from UK and US arrived in India
New aid packages - Remdesivir from the US and ventilators from the UK - arrived in India on Monday night as India battled a second wave of covid-19 infections that have brought health infrastructure to the country. A plane carrying 125,000 Remdesivir arrived on Sunday, officials said. The drug, which has been found to be effective in treating some cases of covid-19 disease, is in short supply in India.
In the UK, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab wrote on Twitter: “We are working closely with India to bring in the equipment they need to deal with this deadly coronavirus. We send thousands of residual respirators to support our Indian friends and help save lives. "
According to Indian authorities, 60 respirators arrived from the UK on Monday. One oxygen-producing plant also came from Italy as well as 9,000 containers of Remdesivir from Belgium. Meanwhile, 500 oxygen cylinders from the Czech Republic, 53 ventilators from Denmark, 119 oxygen concentrators and 145 ventilators from Spain, 100 oxygen concentrators, 449 ventilators, vessels 30,000 antiretroviral drugs from the Netherlands and 15,000 containers of antiretroviral drugs, 516 ventilators and one oxygen generator from Germany were promised to be assisted under the European Union aid program.
With the high number of deaths caused by a lack of medical oxygen, India has focused on importing oxygen-related equipment from abroad. On Sunday, officials said eight doctors brought in from France would be hospitalized in New Delhi as medical facilities revealed a shortage that led to the deaths of critically ill patients. About 40 countries around the world have reached India with the help of covid infection. The number of cases caught on Sunday was 368,000 and the daily death toll was 3,417, according to government figures released on Monday. The number of cases in India were about 20 million.
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