Emirates to fly medical aid to India for free
Cities in stricken country to receive supplies to help fight Covid-19
Emirates airline said on Sunday it will fly medical supplies from Dubai to nine cities in India free of charge from this week to help battle a devastating upsurge in the coronavirus.
International aid has poured in for India, where record infection rates have overwhelmed hospitals, depleting medicines, oxygen tanks and other supplies.
Earlier this month, Qatar Airways also airlifted 300 tons of aid free of charge to the subcontient from Doha.
Emirates will provide free spare capacity to transport supplies from charities based in Dubai, divisional senior vicepresident Nabil Sultan told reporters, saying the mechanism could later be extended to bring aid from other parts.
“We are absolutely committed to helping India,” he said.
The supplies will be organised through Dubai’s International Humanitarian City, a hub used by many non-governmental organisations to transport aid globally. Supplies would be flown for free until further notice, Sultan said.
The first flight under the new “airbridge” is scheduled to depart for New Delhi on May 13 carrying 12.6 tons of multi-purpose tents from the World Health Organisation.
India reported 4,092 new deaths from the virus on Sunday, bringing the total to 242,362. Infections in the last 24 hours rose to 403,738, a near record, increasing the total since the pandemic started to 22.3 million.
Emirates operates 95 weekly flights to nine Indian cities: New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Cochin, Hyderabad and Trivandrum. Those flights offer about 5,000 tons of weekly cargo capacity.
Meanwhile India is to recruit hundreds of former army medics to support its overwhelmed healthcare system, the defence ministry said on Sunday, as the country grapples with record Covid-19 infections and deaths amid angry calls for a complete nationwide lockdown.
About 400 medical officers are expected to serve on contract for a maximum of 11 months, the ministry said in a press release, adding that other defence doctors had also been roped in to provide online consultations.
Covid-19 cases and deaths have been hitting records every two or three days. Deaths rose by more than 4,000 for a second consecutive day on Sunday.
Many Indian states have imposed strict lockdowns over the past month while others have announced restrictions on public movement and shut down cinemas, restaurants, pubs and shopping malls.
But pressure is mounting on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to announce a nationwide lockdown as it did during the first wave last year.
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) called for a “complete, well-planned, preannounced” lockdown instead of “sporadic” night curfews and restrictions imposed by states for a few days at a time.
“IMA is astonished to see the extreme lethargy and inappropriate actions from the ministry of health in combating the agonising crisis born out of the devastating second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic,” it said on Saturday.
Modi is battling criticism for allowing huge gatherings at a religious festival and holding large election rallies over the past two months even as Covid19 cases were surging.
On Saturday India reported its highest ever single-day Covid-19 death toll of 4,187.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimates that India will see 1 million Covid-19 deaths by August.
With an acute shortage of oxygen and beds in many hospitals and with morgues and crematoriums overflowing, experts have said the actual numbers for Covid-19 cases and fatalities could be far higher than reported.
The world’s largest vaccine producing nation has fully vaccinated just over 34.3 million, or only 2.5%, of its 1.35 billion population as of Sunday, according to data from the government’s CO-WIN portal. —
India is to recruit hundreds of former army medics to support its overwhelmed healthcare system