HUMANITARIAN GESTURE

This refers to the report ‘Emirates to fly medical aid to India for free’ (10 May).

The Emirates’ decision to fly medical aid to India is one of the biggest social gestures in this critical time. As India struggles to combat the spread of the virus, the world realizing the nation’s desperate struggle in meeting the basic needs, especially medical supplies, is reaching out generously. The pandemic has been traumatic mostly to commoners as people look at the future with apprehension. Every aid gesture makes a lot of differences in this time to help the struggling community. In the present scenario, survival is high priority, for which timely and enough medical supplies are critical.

Meanwhile, the vaccination drive must accelerate to reach every single household and the commitment should be that everyone must be protected from being infected. The delay in geting vaccinated will only raise uncertainty among the people, therefore voluntary initiative must be promoted so as to safeguard the health of the community. Perhaps the pandemic has helped countries realize how important it is to maintain cordial and diplomatic relationship with each other and how that helps in times of life-threatening circumstances. Ramachandran Nair

Muscat