New Delhi: Despite aids flowing in from all across the globe to help India fight against the deadly second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, the country continues to grapple with a lack of medical facilities including life-gasping oxygen, vaccine and other medical aids.
Given the massive Covid surge in India, the Government of Japan on Friday decided to extend emergency Grant Aid of approximately 18.5 million US dollars.
According to Japan embassy in New Delhi, on April 30, the Government of Japan announced its decision to proceed with the procedure to provide 300 oxygen concentrators and 300 ventilators to India in coordination with the Government of India.
It is pertinent to be mentioned here that earlier on May 5, Japanese Foreign Minister Motegi informed External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar that Japan was ready to provide additional grant assistance of up to 50 million US dollars to India, based on the latter's needs.
Through the assistance announced today, the 300 ventilators announced on April 30 will be transported to India by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS).
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Moreover, the additional 500 ventilators and 500 oxygen concentrators will be provided to India through UNOPS as a part of the assistance of up to 50 million dollars announced on May 5. As a result, 800 ventilators and 800 oxygen concentrators in total will be provided to India through a series of Japanese assistance, the embassy said.
“Japan will provide India with 500 ventilators and 500 oxygen concentrators in addition to the previously announced aids, making the total number of equipment delivered from Japan to 800 each. Japan continues to stand with India in her #fightCOVID! #JapanIndia”, the Japanese embassy in India tweeted.
Japan stands with India, our friend and partner, in her efforts to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic through this additional emergency assistance, and hopes that Japan’s assistance will contribute to alleviating and containing the COVID-19 situation in India, the embassy added in a statement.
Previously on Thursday, two aircrafts carrying a total consignment of 100 oxygen concentrators arrived from Japan in India. A total of four aircraft in 2 days from Japan have delivered a cumulative of 200 oxygen concentrators.
As of May 14, India has the cumulative positive cases of 24,046,809 people and the cumulative deaths of 262,317 people.
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