Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany will send 120 ventilators to India on Saturday, followed by a mobile oxygen production facility next week, to help the country fight a drastic surge of COVID-19 cases, the defence ministry said.
India reported 379,257 new COVID-19 infections and 3,645 new deaths on Thursday, according to health ministry data. It was the highest number of deaths reported in a single day in India since the start of the pandemic.
The German military will fly 120 ventilators donated by the health ministry to India on Saturday, a defence ministry spokesman said.
Next week, two more planes will bring a mobile oxygen production facility to the country, he added, saying up to 16 German soldiers will help set it up and instruct staff of the Indian Red Cross in its operation.
The German military will lend the facility to India to help it tackle the health crisis, according to the spokesman.
India's death toll from the coronavirus pandemic surged past 200,000 on Wednesday, worsened by shortages of hospital beds and medical oxygen.
(Reporting by Sabine Siebold, editing by Emma Thomasson)
© Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021
