As several states face a severe shortage of medical oxygen amid the deadly second wave of COVID-19 infections, the Indian Air Force and Indian Navy have intensified their efforts to ferry oxygen containers and medical equipment.
To date, the IAF's C-17 Globemasters have conducted 400 sorties from within the country. Of these, 351 were to airlift 252 oxygen tankers, carrying a total capacity of 4,904 Metric Tonnes (MT) of the lifesaving gas. The cities covered were Jamnagar, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Panagarh, Indore, Ranchi, Agra, Jodhpur, Begumpet, Bhubaneswar, Pune, Surat, Raipur, Udaipur, Mumbai, Lucknow, Nagpur, Gwalior, Vijaywada, Baroda, Dimapur and Hindan.
Similarly, IAF jets also conducted 59 international sorties to airlift 72 cryogenic oxygen storage containers of 1,233 MT total capacity along with 1,252 empty oxygen cylinders. They were procured from Singapore, Dubai, Bangkok, UK, Germany, Belgium and Australia. In addition, the C-17 and IL-76 aircraft have been tasked to airlift cryogenic oxygen containers, oxygen generators and ventilators from Israel and Singapore.
On the other side, the Indian Navy has deployed its nine warships to bring medical oxygen and other related equipment from friendly foreign nations. Indian naval ships like INS Talwar, INS Kolkata, INS Airavat, INS Kochi, INS Tabar, INS Trikand, INS Jalashwa and INS Shardul have been deployed to ferry oxygen containers, cylinders, concentrators and related equipment from friendly foreign countries.
While INS Talwar has already arrived from Bahrain with 27 MT of oxygen containers, the stealth-guided missile destroyer INS Kolkata is on its way back from Doha, Qatar and Kuwait with oxygen containers and concentrators. The warship will reach Mundra port on May 9.
A senior navy official claims that loading of oxygen containers and other medical supplies has also been planned on INS Tarkash, INS Shardul and INS Jalashwafrom Doha, Kuwait and Muara, Brunei respectively in the coming days.
Meanwhile, retired military doctors will now be available for “Online Consultation Service by Ex-Defence doctors on e-Sanjeevani OPD”. This will take place via the e-Sanjeevani OPD, the Centre's flagship telemedicine platform developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Mohali under the aegis of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and it provides free consultations to any Indian citizen.
"However, with COVID cases surging, the demand for doctors is up while the supply has reduced due to doctors being pulled out for covid ward duties. This is where the defence Veterans are stepping in to help," said a defence official.
