The first life-saving assistance package to help India meet the urgent need for ventilators and oxygen concentrators in its devastating second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic has been dispatched by the UK and is due to arrive in New Delhi in the early hours of Tuesday. Further shipments, paid for by the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), are being organised over the course of this week and will include nine airline container loads of supplies, including 495 oxygen concentrators, 120 non-invasive ventilators and 20 manual ventilators. The focus at the moment is on expediting a constant flow of the equipment required immediately on the ground in the most efficient way, UK government sources said. UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, who also referred to India as a “very important partner", held talks with external affairs minister S. Jaishankar on Monday. The oxygen concentrators can extract oxygen from the air in the atmosphere so that it can be provided to patients, taking the strain off hospital oxygen systems and allowing oxygen to be provided in situations where hospital oxygen supplies have run out.

Source: Mint April 26, 2021 16:30 UTC