Japan To Send $18.5Mln Worth Of Extra COVID-19 Aid To India

TOKYO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th May, 2021) Japan will deliver to India a further 500 oxygen concentrators and 500 lung ventilators as part of additional assistance in fighting COVID-19, the foreign ministry said on Friday.

In late April, the country announced the decision to send 300 oxygen concentrators and 300 ventilators to India.

"Today, May 14, the Government of Japan decided to extend Emergency Grant Aid of approximately 18.5 million US Dollars to India in response to the current surge of COVID-19 infections in India," the statement said, adding that it is the first portion of the $50 million extra aid announced by Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi on May 5.

As part of the aid, India will receive 500 ventilators and 500 oxygen concentrators, along with the 300 ventilators pledged on April 30.

Indian hospitals have been suffering from an acute shortage of oxygen, prompting several countries to rush to help the embattled nation with medical equipment, medicines and oxygen generators.

The country has the second-highest COVID-19 toll in the world after the US, having so far registered over 24 million cases and more than 260,000 deaths.