Airlines, travel websites and transportation companies are using their resources to move oxygen across the country as hospitals have struggled to treat patients with Covid-19 due to an acute shortage.
Singapore-based Temasek has partnered with Air India Ltd and Amazon to deliver oxygen concentrators, non-invasive BiPAP ventilators, and other essential medical supplies to much-needed local communities.
The Temasek Foundation has also partnered with companies such as ACT Grants, Bajaj Group, Abhay Firodia Group, Star Agriwarehousing and Collateral Management Ltd., Thermax Ltd. and the Pune Platform for Covid-19 Response to provide essentials to various hospitals and treatment centers across the country.
SpiceJet Ltd recently flown 800 oxygen concentrators from Hong Kong for emergency and distribution across the country.
“We shipped a record 88,802 kg of Covid vaccine between January 12 and April 12, with a total dose of 34 million Covid vaccines, and our efforts will only be stepped up from here,” said Ajay Singh, Chairman and Managing Director of SpiceJet.
Singh added that SpiceJet plans to bring more than 10,000 oxygen concentrators to India from around the world in the coming days.
The national airline Air India will also operate long-haul flights to the USA in the coming weeks to provide around 10,000 oxygen concentrators for private companies.
“Air India will be flying to India in large quantities in oxygen concentrators from some destinations in the US very soon,” an airline spokesman said, adding that the airline is poised to do more such long-haul flights for such assignments in the future.
The online travel platform EaseMyTrip is in talks with German and British suppliers to import oxygen concentrators to India, said managing director and co-founder Nishant Pitti.
The company has imported around 350 units of oxygen concentrators from China for distribution, added Pitti.
Up to 352,991 other people have tested positive for Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, the Union Ministry of Health announced on Monday morning. The number of deaths in India is also reaching a record high. 2,812 more people have succumbed to the disease in the past 24 hours. The death toll has thus reached 195,123.
Due to the increasing number, there is a lack of oxygen in hospitals across the country.
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