India's COVID-19 Crisis, International Aid Starts To Arrive

Illustration of handling COVID-19 patients. (Wikimedia Commons / Mstyslav Chernov)

JAKARTA - Important medical assistance from a number began arriving in India on Tuesday, April 27 local time, amid a spike in cases of coronavirus infection, as well as a crisis of lack of oxygen and hospital capacity. Meanwhile, another assistance is still in the process of being sent.

A shipment from the UK, including 100 ventilators and 95 oxygen concentrators, arrived in the capital New Delhi, although Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman said Britain did not have an overdose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

In addition, France is sending eight large oxygen-producing generators this week while Ireland, Germany, and Australia are sending oxygen concentrators and ventilators, said an Indian foreign ministry official, underscoring the urgent need for oxygen.

Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden reiterated the commitment to help India, saying he hoped to send a vaccine there. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) said it was working to deliver 4,000 oxygen concentrators to India.

Meanwhile from within the country, India's Oxygen Express train departs for New Delhi, loaded with about 70 tons of oxygen from the eastern state.

"The current wave is very dangerous and contagious. Hospitals are overloaded", Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said, adding that a large public area in the capital would be converted into a critical care hospital.

Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also trying to get AstraZeneca vaccine assistance from the United States, where there are about 60 million doses of the vaccine to be given, but the vaccine has not yet received permission to use.

Apart from medical equipment, oxygen, and vaccines, medical aid also arrived in India. Gilead Sciences said it would provide India with at least 450,000 bottles of the antiviral drug remdesivir. Merck & Co said on Tuesday it was partnering with five Indian generic drug makers to expand production and access to the experimental COVID-19 drug molnupiravir.

To note, there have been 323,144 new cases of COVID-19 infection in India over the past 24 hours, which is the world record of 352,991 daily infections that occurred in India on Monday. And, 2,771 new deaths brought the number of victims to 197,894.