Indian Air Force, Navy ferrying oxygen, medical supplies on war-footing to fight Covid-19

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The Indian Air Force and Navy are transporting oxygen and medical supplies on a war-footing from domestic production facilities and friendly countries such as Kuwait, Qatar and Singapore to meet the surge in demand at hospitals amid the second devastating Covid-19 wave sweeping across the country</p>
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According to a defence ministry statement, as of early hours of May 10, IAF aircraft carried out 534 sorties from various parts of the country, airlifting 336 oxygen containers of total capacity of 6,420 Metric Tonnes (MT) and other medical supplies and equipment. The cities covered are Jamnagar, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Panagarh, Indore, Ranchi, Agra, Jodhpur, Begumpet, Bhubaneshwar, Pune, Surat, Raipur, Udaipur, Mumbai, Lucknow, Nagpur, Gwalior, Vijayawada, Baroda, Dimapur and Hindan near Delhi.</p>
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The IAF aircraft also carried out 84 international sorties, airlifting 81 cryogenic oxygen storage containers of total capacity of 1,407 MT along with 1,252 empty oxygen cylinders, 705 oxygen concentrators and Zeolite (respiratory oxygen raw material). The equipment has been procured from Singapore, Dubai, Thailand, United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, Australia, Indonesia and Israel.</p>
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As part of operation ‘Samudra Setu II’, Indian Naval Ships INS Airavat, INS Trikandand INS Kolkata arrived back home with critical COVID-19 medical stores from friendly foreign countries.</p>
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INS Kolkata arrived at New Mangalore Port on 10 May with 400 bottles of Oxygen, two 27 MT containers of Liquid Medical Oxygen and 47 concentrators from Kuwait and Qatar.</p>
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While these ships entered ports to augment oxygen supply in three different states, two more warships are en route to India from Kuwait and one ship is at Brunei to get back medical supplies.</p>