Coronavirus Pandemic: Germany to send oxygen, medicines to India amid COVID-19 crisis

Germany will send oxygen and medicines to India to help it tackle the COVID-19 pandemic that has put a burden on the health infrastructure of the country, informed German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Monday.

"[W]e are now using all the levers in the federal government and in discussions with businesses to provide assistance as soon as possible, for example, with oxygen and medicines," Maas told Rheinische Post, as quoted by Sputnik.

The minister also recalled that Germany has banned the entry of all travelers from India, except German citizens, starting Monday.

"The second wave is currently rolling over India with unprecedented power... It was right that we acted quickly to stop the entry of the new mutation into Germany," Maas added.

Expressing solidarity with the people of India amid the record surge in COVID-19 cases, German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday had said that they are preparing a "mission to support" to aid India's fight against the pandemic.

"To the people of India, I want to express my sympathy on the terrible suffering that COVID-19 has again brought over your communities. The fight against the pandemic is our common fight. Germany stands in solidarity with India and is urgently preparing a mission of support," Merkel had said in a message shared on Twitter by her spokesperson Steffen Seibert.

As India fights against the unprecedented health crisis of COVID-19, global support in the form of oxygen supplies, ventilators, raw material for vaccines, PPT kits and oxygen concentrators have started pouring in.

India reported 3.52 lakh fresh coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours. This is the highest single-day spike registered since the onset of the pandemic.

A total of 3,52,991 new COVID-19 cases, 2,812 related deaths and 2,19,272 recoveries were reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total active cases to 28,13,658, as per the health ministry's update on Monday morning.

The total count of positive cases now stands at 1,73,13,163, including 1,95,123 deaths and 1,43,04,382 recoveries.

(ANI)

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