India got 5.5 lakh Remdesivir vials, 15,801 oxygen cylinders as foreign aid: Centre

Nineteen oxygen generation plants, 11,321 oxygen concentrators, 15,801 oxygen cylinders and about 5.5 lakh Remdesivir vials received as global aid have been delivered or dispatched to various states and union territories from April 27 to May 16, the Centre said on Monday.

The government has been receiving international cooperation for COVID-19 relief medical supplies and equipment since April 27 from different countries and organisations. Through a streamlined and systematic mechanism, various ministries and departments have seamlessly collaborated under the 'whole of government' approach for expeditiously delivering incoming global aid to states and union territories, the Union health ministry said.

It said that cumulatively, 11,321 oxygen concentrators, 15,801 oxygen cylinders, 19 oxygen generation plants, 7,470 ventilators or Bi-PAPs and about 5.5 lakh Remdesivir vials have been delivered or dispatched through road and air from April 27 to May 16.

Major consignments received on May 15-16 from Australia, Romania, the US, Kazakhstan, the UK, the European Union (Germany, Portugal, Slovenia), Qatar, Kuwait, ICBF (Qatar), the British Oxygen Company and Medical Aid (UK) include oxygen concentrators (263), ventilators, Bi-PAP and CPAP (105), oxygen cylinders (2,332), Remdesivir vials (30,753) and Casirivimab/Imdevimab (20,000), the ministry saiud.

Effective immediate allocation, and streamlined delivery to recipient states, union territories and institutions is an ongoing exercise, it said, adding that the process is being monitored on a regular basis. The ministry said that a cell has been created to coordinate the receipt and allocation of foreign COVID relief material as international cooperation in the form of grants, aid and donations. This cell started functioning from April 26 and a Standard Operating Procedure has been framed and implemented by the ministry since May 2.