Indian Air Force flies oxygen tanks to UAE for refills to boost hospital supplies

UAE, 18 May. Three containers filled with 60 tonnes of oxygen will be shipped back to India on WednesdayThe Indian Air Force flew three empty tankers to the UAE on Monday. They will be refilled with 60 tonnes of liquid oxygen and shipped back to India for use in the country’s Covid-19 fight. India’s Defence Ministry said transporting the empty containers on an Ilyushin IL-76 military plane reduced the time needed to deliver the tankers to the Emirates from Jamnagar, in Gujarat, western India. They were delivered to Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai.

Pavan Kapoor, India’s ambassador to the UAE, said the tankers would be refilled and shipped back on an Indian Navy vessel on Wednesday.Oxygen is a critical requirement in India’s struggle against Covid-19, with hospitals running out of supplies and being forced to turn away patients. “These are three containers that Adnoc had given us that were sent to India with liquid oxygen earlier,” Mr Kapoor told The National, referring to Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. “These have been brought back for a refill. The idea is to save time on the refill, so they were flown to the UAE.

“Once refilled, the containers will be sent off in a naval ship.” The embassy obtained 200 tonnes of liquid oxygen for India from the UAE this month. This cycle will be repeated over the next few weeks, with the empty tankers returning to the Emirates to be refilled. “In the next rounds we will also continue sending oxygen containers through normal shipping lines and the facilities of DP World,” he said, referring to the logistics company in Dubai. “We will definitely need this for the next few weeks, maybe longer, depending on the situation in India.”
The embassy sent seven tankers containing 140 tonnes of liquid oxygen to India on May 1. Indians living abroad, and community associations in the UAE and elsewhere have also sent medicine, ventilators and oxygen concentrators and cylinders to help.They sent supplies via air courier directly to relatives in need or shipped them to India. Several states in the country have introduced stay-at-home restrictions as it attempts to contain the deadly disease, which has killed at least 4,106 people in the past 24 hours. A total of 274,390 people have died of Covid-19, according to Indian government figures. India recorded 281,386 new Covid-19 cases on Monday – the first time the daily count has dropped below 300,000 since April. Experts have said it is too early to pronounce a turnaround in the national caseload.