NEW DELHI: The Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force stepped up its efforts to help India, which is fighting a devastating second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, by delivering oxygen cylinders, ventilators and other medical supplies from several countries.
The Indian Navy on Sunday brought 340 metric tonnes of liquid oxygen, more than 3,700 oxygen cylinders and other medical supplies to India from Singapore, Brunei and Qatar.
Under operation ‘Samudra Setu II,’ ships from all three naval commands in Mumbai, Visakhapatnam, and Kochi were deployed to bring oxygen and other medical equipment.
Indian Navy spokesperson Commander Vivek Madhwal said that two warships, INS Jalashwa and INS Trikand, were used to bring the supplies.
The arrival of the naval ship INS Jalashwa in Visakhapatnam with 300 metric tonnes of liquid medical oxygen (LMO) was the largest consignment of LMO transported to India from abroad. Other medical equipment carried on the ship included ventilators, empty cryogenic oxygen containers, and over 3,600 oxygen cylinders from Singapore and Brunei.
The INS Trikand landed in Mumbai with 40 metric tonnes of liquid oxygen and 100 oxygen cylinders from Qatar.
The Indian Navy executed Operation Samudra Setu last year as part of the Vande Bharat evacuation mission, to repatriate around 4,000 stranded Indians to India from the Maldives, Sri Lanka, and Iran.
The Indian Air Force has also brought a large number of cryogenic oxygen containers and other medical equipment to India from several countries in the last few weeks. Three cryogenic containers were brought from Bangkok to Hyderabad by an IL-76. Four containers were brought from Frankfurt to Hindan and four from Belgium to West Bengal.
The deadly second wave of coronavirus has completely ravaged India with putting the country’s whole health-care system in threat. India currently has the second highest number of COVID-19 cases in the world. However, after weeks of suffering and distress, the COVID-19 case numbers in India began to fall in the last week, but the concern remains as the death toll stays high.
In the last 24 hours, India recorded 2,22,315 new cases of coronavirus, the lowest in around 38 days. This brings the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 2,67,52,447. The death toll rose to 3,03,720, with an additional 4,454 deaths reported.
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