Switzerland has sent a cargo aircraft carrying medical equipment, including 600 oxygen concentrators and 50 respirators, to help alleviate supply shortages in India amid the country’s devastative second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In an official statement, the Swiss government said that the aircraft which left the Zurich airport on Thursday for New Delhi, carried 13 tonnes of medical equipment worth close to 3 million Swiss francs ($3.28 million), reports Xinhua news agency.
The equipment, donated by the Swiss Humanitarian Aid and the Federal Department of Defense, Civil Protection and Sport, will be distributed to Indian hospitals in coordination with the Indian Red Cross and the Ministry of Health.
The statement also mentioned that body bags were sent alongside oxygen concentrators and respirators.
On Friday, India again registered a record increase in the number of single-day Covid-19 cases.
With 4,14,188 fresh Covid-19 cases recorded in the last 24 hour, the country’s overall infection tally now stood at 2,14,91,598, the second highest in the world after the US.
This is the the third time after May 1 that India has crossed the four lakh mark of active cases in last 24 hours.
On Thursday, the country reported 4,12,262 cases.
The death toll meanwhile increased to 2,34,083 with 3,915 new fatalities.
Friday also marked the ninth consecutive day that over 3,000 casualties have been reported.
