France is Sending Oxygen Equipment Crucial for COVID-19 Medical Aid to India
France is sending the much-needed help to India because the second wave of coronavirus is the world’s most populated nation.
The help comes after more than 300,000 new COVID 19 cases were registered in one day in India, taking to 17 million the total number of infections.
Alone in April 2021, five million of all infections were counted, which pushed India’s health care system to the verge of collapse.
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COVID-19: India’s Struggle With the Second Wave of Coronavirus
On Monday, Apr. 26, New York Times reported how India struggled to push back the second wave of coronavirus that quickly brought the country into a devastating crisis.
India had been trying to enforce an internationally tight national lockdown with a population of 1.3 billion, when the second wave caught the people out of guard, while the local version of the COVID-19 went out of hand.
On April 5, 2021, India reported 115,736 new infections, toppling its previous record of 97,894 in one single day last seen on Sept. 16, 2020.
On Monday, April 26, the number rose to 323,023, pushing the already difficult healthcare system in the country to turn the patients away, and allowing them to face up to the fight alone.
Experts blame for the disastrous surge of coronaviral lockdowns by the government following India’s surprisingly good efforts to curb the spread of the virus.
“The issues of public conduct and administrative behaviour,” said Dr. K Srinath Reddy, Chairman of the Indian Public Health Foundation. “We’re in trouble if we do this for 6 weeks or 4 weeks, then claim victory and open the door wide again.””
The struggle in India seemed to prove previous studies, in which experts said the latest strains are more contagious than the initial new coronavirus.
India’s Top Virologist Dr Shahid Jameel chokes on tears on @themojostory talking of deaths of friends and families. “India has lost the plot.. and this data, its manipulated, skewed, fake. underreported” – full show here: https://t.co/yP2E9tDmVT pic.twitter.com/DrWvTFjhFa
— barkha dutt (@BDUTT) April 22, 2021
France Announces ‘Solidarity Mission’ to India
The Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs of France announced a “solidarity mission” for India, pledging to send oxygen generators, ventilators, and ICU gears to help the country with its battle against COVID-19.
Eight generators of oxygen are used in the first aid of the shipment, each of which can equip 250 hospital beds, lasting several years.
Furthermore, France sends liquid medical oxygen, 28 aircraft and 200 electric syringe pumps to help up to 10,000 patients a day.
The French Ministry declared in its statement of Monday, April 26 that ‘the operation, coordinated by the Minister’s Crisis and Support Center and executed by the French Embassy to India, involves air and sea delivery of the following by the end of this week.’
The support promises to help India increase the ability of its hospitals to treat COVID-19 patients and to combat this pandemic on a long-term basis.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who also vowed to send oxygen concentrating devices to help the country deal with oxygen shortfalls, was also interested in India’s crisis.
