Germany airlifts oxygen equipment to India as COVID-19 cases surge

BERLIN: A German military cargo aircraft with a mobile oxygen production unit for India has departed from an airport in northern Germany to help Indian hospitals that are overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients.

The plane will have a layover in Abu Dhabi and is expected to arrive in India on Thursday (May 6).

“We’re proud to contribute significantly with our airlift in the global fight against the coronavirus,” German air force's Lieutenant General Ingo Gerhartz told German news agency dpa on Wednesday.

”Air transports are a routine for us but we all know that the fight against this pandemic is about human lives and that every single life counts.”

READ: India posts record daily rise in COVID-19 deaths

A team of 13 Germans arrived a few days ago in India will stay in the country for two weeks to train local members of the Red Cross in India on how to use the oxygen unit.

A second cargo plane is expected to leave Wunstorf air base on Thursday.

India accounted for nearly half of the COVID-19 cases reported worldwide last week, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday, as the country's coronavirus deaths rose by a record 3,780 during the last 24 hours.

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Daily infections in the country rose by 382,315 on Wednesday, health ministry data showed, the 14th straight day of more than 300,000 cases. 

India's second deadly surge of COVID-19 has seen hospitals runs out of beds and oxygen and left morgues and crematoriums overflowing. Many people have died in ambulances and car parks waiting for a bed or oxygen.

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