Emirates to transport free Covid relief items to India

Emirates said on Sunday it will not charge NGOs anything for transporting their COVID relief material on its flights from Dubai to India.

India has been badly hit by the second wave of coronavirus and hospitals in several states are reeling under shortage of health workers, vaccines, oxygen, drugs and beds.

"Emirates will offer cargo capacity free of charge on an "as available" basis on all of its flights to nine cities in India, to help international NGOs rapidly deliver relief supplies, where it is needed," the airline said in a statement.

Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Emirates' Chairman and Chief Executive, said, "Emirates has a lot of experience in humanitarian relief efforts, and with 95 weekly flights to nine destinations in India, we will be offering regular and reliable widebody capacity for relief materials." India recorded 4,03,738 fresh COVID-19 cases in a day, which pushed the tally to 2,22,96,414, according to the Union health ministry data updated on Sunday.

The death toll climbed to 2,42,362 with 4,092 daily deaths, the data updated at 8 am showed.

Ten states account for over 71% cases

Maharashtra, Karnataka and Delhi are among 10 states that account for 71.75 per cent of the 4,03,738 new COVID-19 cases registered in a day, the Union Health Ministr y said on Sunday.

The other states in the list of 10 are Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Rajasthan, and Haryana. Maharashtra has reported the highest daily new cases at 56,578 followed by Karnataka with 47,563 while Kerala reported 41,971 new cases. A total of more than 30.22 crore tests have been conducted so far across the countr y.