The Diplomat
Almost 600 respirators and more than 320 oxygen concentrators will leave today from Madrid and Barcelona to India to help alleviate the effects of the second wave of COVID-19 in the Asian country, which is currently registering the highest number of positive cases in the world, with an average of 380,000 infections per day, and the third highest number of deaths, behind the United States and Brazil.
On the one hand, the State Secretary for International Cooperation, Ángeles Moreno Bau; the Indian Ambassador to Spain, Sanjay Verma; the Director of the Center for Coordination of Alerts and Health Emergencies, Fernando Simón; and the State Secretary for Health, Silvia Calzón, yesterday visited the cargo terminal of Barajas International Airport to supervise the shipment of medical material that will leave today for India on a commercial flight with a stopover in Saudi Arabia.
This shipment, organized by the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), responds to the appeal for international aid made on April 23 by India through the European Civil Protection Mechanism, which has also been joined by Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and the Czech Republic on behalf of the European Union.
Specifically, Spain will send a total of 167 respirators and 121 oxygen concentrators, as well as consumables such as filters and masks, for a total of approximately two million euros. AECID’s Humanitarian Action Office has contributed 111 oxygen concentrators, 22 respirators and consumables, while the Ministry of Health has donated ten oxygen concentrators and 141 respirators and the Spanish company Inbentus has manufactured and donated another four respirators. The shipment will arrive in New Delhi on Monday, May 10, and will be delivered to the Indian Red Cross for distribution. A second shipment from Barajas is also scheduled for next week.
On the other hand, and apart from the European Civil Protection Mechanism, another shipment will leave Barcelona today, consisting of 400 respirators and 200 oxygen concentrators, provided by the Vicente Ferrer Foundation and Open Arms organizations with the support of civil society agents and the Generalitat of Catalonia.
In declarations to the press from Barajas, Moreno Bau affirmed that “it is an unquestionable duty to respond to the suffering of so many people”, because “it is an ethical requirement and a necessity to be able to overcome the magnitude of this crisis”. “We are facing a pandemic with global repercussions whose solution can only be global and therefore requires the help and solidarity of all”, she added.
For his part, the Ambassador of India thanked, on behalf of his Government and the people of India, “the support and solidarity of Spain to fight the second wave of COVID-19” and highlighted this “gesture that reinforces the close and long-standing relations between the two countries”. “At the beginning of the pandemic, India did the same with other countries, for which we show our gratitude which is but a reflection of mutual cooperation and goodwill”, he concluded.
