A total of 150 oxygen concentrators and 500 oxygen cylinders donated by Taiwan arrived in India yesterday to support its fight against a raging second wave of COVID-19, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
A China Airlines Ltd (中華航空) cargo plane loaded with supplies left Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at about 7am and arrived at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport at about 11am local time.
“These oxygen concentrators & cylinders are love from #Taiwan. More help for our friends in #India is on the way. #IndiaStayStrong! JW,” Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) wrote on Twitter.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs via CNA
The supplies are to be given to the Indian Red Cross Society, which is in charge of coordinating all medical supplies donated by foreign governments to help India fight the COVID-19 pandemic, the ministry said in a news release.
More medical supplies would be sent to India in the near future, the ministry added.
India’s second wave of COVID-19 infections has devastated big cities such as New Delhi, Mumbai, Lucknow and Pune.
Only about 100 Taiwanese still reside in India, as a large number of them had returned to Taiwan due to the pandemic, the ministry said.
The most recent evacuation took place on Friday, when 14 Taiwanese left India on a Japan Airlines Co flight and landed in Taiwan on Saturday, it said.
A Taiwanese man on Saturday became the first Taiwanese citizen to die from COVID-19 in India.
The 49-year-old man surnamed Yang (楊), a manager at a technology company based in Gurugram in the northern state of Haryana, was pronounced dead after being hospitalized in the city earlier this week, said a source who asked to remain anonymous.
The company has informed Yang’s family, and plans to cremate his body before Taiwan’s representative office in India sends his ashes home, the source added.
Representative to India Baushuan Ger (葛葆萱) said that his office would do its best to help Yang’s family arrange his funeral.
Yang was among 11 Taiwanese in India infected with COVID-19.
The source said that Yang’s company has eight Taiwanese managers, all of whom had received China’s Sinovac vaccine.
Five of the eight contracted COVID-19 earlier this week, but only Yang developed more severe symptoms, the source said.
Yang had asked Taiwan’s representative office in India to transfer him to a better-equipped hospital before he died, the source added.
As of yesterday, India had reported more than 19.5 million COVID-19 cases and 215,542 deaths.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center, yesterday announced that starting at 12am tomorrow, travelers who have visited India in the past 14 days, including those who had transited through the nation, would be subject to centralized quarantine for 14 days.
They would need to take a polymerase chain reaction test upon ending quarantine and continue practicing self-health management at home for seven days, he said, adding that as it is a compulsory order, the government would pay the centralized quarantine fee.
Additional reporting by Lee I-chia
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