India will receive oxygen and medicines from more than 40 countries due to the coronavirus crisis

The Indian government reported this Thursday that in the coming days it will receive oxygen equipment and medicines from more than 40 countries. It will benefit from international engagement to help tackle the second wave of coronavirus that lives the India, which breaks record numbers in the midst of the health collapse.

India expects shipments of pharmaceuticals, tons of liquid oxygen and oxygen-generating equipment from more than 40 countries that “pledged to provide many of the items India most urgently needs,” announced Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla, at a press conference.

The secretary stressed that at the moment the distribution of liquid oxygen is being prioritized, given the shortage that the boom in cases has caused in this nation of more than 1.35 billion inhabitants, which today crossed 18 million infections.

“We have also seen the need to (distribute) any equipment that produces oxygen, such as generators, concentrators, cryogenic tanks, transport equipment,” he added.

The secretary notified that the installation of about 550 oxygen generating plants that will come from different parts of the world is planned to meet the current demand.

In addition, “we are looking for more than 4,000 oxygen concentrators that are essential, more than 10,000 oxygen cylinders, which are also in short supply, and 17 cryogenic oxygen tanks, some of which have already arrived,” he added during his speech. .

Although the country is a producer of drugs such as Remdesivir or Tocilizumab, hospitals urgently need more doses of both antivirals to treat the most severe patients with coronavirus.

Therefore, “we are looking to acquire 400,000 doses of Remdesivir from Egypt and also make efforts to obtain it from the United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh, Uzbekistan,” he said.

Likewise, the company that has developed the antiviral Remdesivir, Gilead, will provide the Government of India with 450,000 doses, and another 300,000 doses of Favipiravir will arrive from Russia.

India now focuses all its hopes on its ambitious vaccination campaign to end this crisis. So far, more than 150 million doses have been administered since the campaign began in January.