India Covid: First UK aid arrives as coronavirus deaths mount

World 02:27 PM - 2021-04-27

Photo Credit: EPA

Medical supplies from the UK arrived in India on Tuesday - the first international shipment aimed at stemming a devastating Covid-19 surge.

 

Ventilators and oxygen equipment landed in Delhi, but far more will be needed, with many hospitals overwhelmed and people waiting in the streets outside.

 

India recorded 320,000 new infections on Tuesday, and deaths are now close to 200,000 in total.

 

One health adviser called the aid for a nation of 1.3bn "a drop in the ocean".

 

Zarir Udwadia, who works in Mumbai hospitals and counsels the government, told the BBC's Today programme the currently pledged supplies would have limited effects. He said he was seeing "ward after ward full of patients struggling to breathe on ventilators of different forms and shapes".

 

 

PUKmedia / BBC