15 EU countries send medical aid to Covid-blighted India
Brussels, May 3 (EFE).- Fifteen European Union members have sent medical aid to help India cope with a soar in coronavirus cases and deaths, the European Commission announced on Monday.
“Collective action is the only solution if we want to win our fight against the #COVID19 pandemic,” Janez Lenarcic European Commissioner for Crisis Management posted to his Twitter account.
He said he takes pride in the EU’s “substantial help” sent to India through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.
Last week, the European Union echoed aid offers made by the Republic of Ireland, Belgium, Romania, Luxembourg, Portugal, Sweden, France, Italy, Austria and Finland.
Further emergency aid packages have since been sent to India by the Czech Republic, Denmark, Spain, the Netherlands and Germany through the mechanism coordinating the medical supply to India.
India became the world’s second-worst hit country by the coronavirus with nearly 20 million cases, after the United States’ 32.4 million infections.
The Asian country has been struggling with a highly transmissible variant during a second wave of infections that has heaped strain on its health system.
India recorded 368,147 new infections in the last 24 hours from Sunday morning, according to the health data, while the number of deaths rose by 3,417 in the last 24 hours to 218,959, a figure that many experts say could be under-reported. EFE
cat/ta/jt
