(New Delhi) India, still deploring nearly 400,000 new cases of COVID-19 and a record number of deaths in 24 hours, continued to receive medical aid from abroad on Sunday, intended to relieve hospitals saturated with patients lacking oxygen.
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A cargo plane chartered by France landed in New Delhi on Sunday morning with 28 tons of medical equipment on board, including eight large-capacity oxygen generators, AFP reported.
Hospitals in the Indian capital are overwhelmed and experiencing shortages of beds, medicines and oxygen with often fatal consequences for many people, who die in front of institutions without being able to be treated.
PHOTO DANISH SIDDIQUI, REUTERS
Man with COVID-19 is comforted by his daughter as he receives treatment in the emergency room of a New Delhi hospital on 1is May.
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This equipment can also fill bottles with a flow rate of 20,000 liters per hour, each plant being able to continuously supply an Indian hospital with 250 beds without interruption for ten years, the French authorities said in a press release.
Eight oxygen factories
These oxygen plants are to be delivered Sunday to eight Indian hospitals, six in Delhi, one in the state of Haryana (north) and one in the state of Telangana (center).
One of these generators has been delivered to BLK-Max Hospital in Delhi and will be operational within two or three days.
“A device like this, which produces 24 hours a day internally, is going to be a big help in increasing the supply.” [en oxygène] “Said the head of this private establishment, Sanjay Gupta,” this equipment will save lives now.
PHOTO MONEY SHARMA, FRANCE-PRESS AGENCY
Equipment from France is unloaded at Indira Gandhi Airport in New Delhi.
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According to the latest figures from the Ministry of Health on Saturday, New Delhi has recorded 27,000 new infections and 375 deaths in the last 24 hours.
This freight, the first phase of the French “solidarity operation”, also includes 28 respirators and 200 electric syringe pumps.
“India helped us last year in French hospitals, when the need for drugs was enormous. The French people remember it ”, declared Sunday Emmanuel Lenain, the French ambassador to India. “We wanted to show solidarity, now that the country is facing difficulties.”
The country of 1.3 billion inhabitants has recorded nearly 400,000 new infections in the past 24 hours.
There were also 3,689 additional deaths on Sunday, the largest increase ever recorded in one day, bringing the total toll to more than 215,000 deaths.
“Aid that will save lives”
Very high figures that many experts believe, however, to be largely undervalued.
After US aid of more than 400 oxygen cylinders and a million tests for the coronavirus arrived on Friday, India received medical aid from Germany. A German military plane landed in Delhi on Saturday with 120 respirators on board.
GERMAN AIR FORCE PHOTO VIA AFP
Germany has sent 120 respirators to India.
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“We provide assistance that […] will save lives, ”said German Ambassador to India Walter J. Lindner. “The hospitals are full. People sometimes die in front of hospitals. They have no more oxygen. Sometimes [ils meurent] in their cars ”.
New Delhi authorities announced on Saturday the extension of confinement for an additional week in the immense city of 20 million inhabitants.
Most of its cemeteries are now full and many crematoriums are in continuous operation, with the influx of deaths sometimes forcing bodies to be cremated on vacant lots or parking lots.
In April alone, Delhi recorded more than 7 million new infections.
On Sunday, the eastern state of Odisha, in turn, declared containment to slow the spread of the epidemic.
Slowness in vaccination
India on Saturday opened vaccination against COVID-19 to its entire adult population, some 600 million people.
Vaccination “is a necessity now. There are so many people who have tested positive, ”Megha Srivastava, a 35-year-old scientist, told AFP outside a Delhi vaccination center on Saturday as she prepared to receive the vaccine.
Several states, including Maharashtra and New Delhi – among the most affected -, however, have warned of running out of vaccines.
The expanded deployment of this campaign is further hampered by administrative quarrels, price confusion and technical issues on the government’s digital vaccination platform.
So far, around 150 million vaccines have been administered in total, or only 11.5% of the population, and just 25 million people have received their two injections.
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