International aid has been arriving in India and a number of countries have commitment to join in the fight against COVID, as the country’s healthcare is system pushed to the margin of collapse by a deadly second wave.
On Tuesday in the morning vital medical supplies and ventilators arrived by flight from UK. From Dubai six oxygen containers will also flown in, on a phone call conversation between Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and US president Joe Biden, he promised, “America’s steadfast support” to India by providing vaccine raw materials and oxygen-related supplies.
US also sent their unused 60m doses of AstraZeneca vaccine which was not approved by US authorities. India start to vaccine their adults from Saturday but the country already suffering from shortages of jabs.
“Just as India sent assistance to the United States as our hospitals were strained early in the pandemic, we are determined to help India in its time of need,” Biden wrote on Twitter.
India break his own records on Monday over 300,000 new cases and 2,771 new deaths. However, health experts believe the official toll is far higher, with populous states such as Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat accused of undercounting Covid-19 fatalities and cases. With COVID testing labs overwhelmed in cities such as Delhi, many with symptoms have been unable to get a test.
The COVID positivity rate in Delhi continued to rise to over 35%, while in the city of Kolkata in West Bengal, a state which is still going through heavily criticized state elections, doctors reported it was almost 50%.
France pledge to send supplies to India through air plane or sea with eight oxygen concentrators, containers of liquid oxygen and 28 respirators.
The (WHO) World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the organization was also try to help India by sending them “Thousands of oxygen containers” among other critical equipment.
“The situation in India is beyond heartbreaking,” said Tedros. “WHO is doing everything we can.”
In March, India gifted Bhutan over half a million Astrazeneca vaccines, which helped the country implement one of the world’s fastest vaccinations rollouts, where it vaccinated 93% of the small population in just 16 days. Pledges of support have also come from Denmark, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Australia and Bhutan.
The international aid being not enough to fulfil the acute gap in supplies of oxygen there’s a lot of people need oxygen, this shortage is affecting hospitals in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh , even though the state’s chief minister force that there is no oxygen shortage in Uttar Pradesh ,and threatning private hospital with criminal charges if they told someone about oxygen scarcity.
Thailand Bangladesh Singapore and UK already placed limitations on flights from India. On Monday Australia also suspended direct flights from India until at least 15th of may because of rising COVID cases.