Foreign donors have intensified efforts to send more emergency medical aid to alleviate a dire oxygen shortage in India, as Covid-19 deaths in the South Asian nation set a new record.
India is setting almost daily records for new infections and deaths as the virus crisis engulfs overstretched hospitals in cities and spreads into rural regions.
The country of 1.3 billion reported 3,689 deaths on Sunday — the highest single-day rise yet in the pandemic, to take the overall toll to more than 215,000.
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Just under 400,000 infections were added, bringing the total number of cases past 19.5 million.
The latest figures came as medical equipment, including oxygen-generation plants, was flown into the capital New Delhi from France and Germany as part of a huge international effort.
‘We are here because we are bringing help that… will save lives,‘ Germany’s ambassador to India, Walter J. Lindner, said as 120 ventilators arrived late Saturday.
‘Out there the hospitals are full. People are sometimes dying in front of the hospitals. They have no more oxygen. Sometimes (they are dying) in their cars.’
French ambassador Emmanuel Lenain said his country wanted to show solidarity with India.
‘The epidemic is still going on in one country. The world won’t be safe until we are all safe. So it’s a matter of urgency,’ he said early Sunday following the delivery of eight oxygen-generation plants and dozens of ventilators from France.
AFRICA TODAY NEWS, NEW YORK