The army and the air force have pitched in to help India fight the battle against coronavirus as several parts of the country have been reporting dire shortage of essential medicines and oxygen supply.
The army and air force are deploying doctors and other medical staff in Delhi and other cities. While the army has sent its doctors to the Covid hospital set up by the DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) in Delhi, the air force has airlifted doctors and nursing staff from Kochi, Mumbai, Visakhapatnam and Bengaluru to the Delhi hospital.
The IAF, which said it is ready to undertake any task for Covid relief, has also flown in oxygen containers of the DRDO from Bengaluru to Covid centres in Delhi. The air force is also flying in regulators, trolleys and essential medicines.
While 10 army doctors have been sent to the Gujarat University Convention Centre in Ahmedabad, four have been sent to the ESI Hospital in Patna.
An army team will be deployed at a Covid isolation facility in Madhya Pradesh's Sagar to help it its operation.
A special train service called the "Oxygen Express", which carries medical oxygen, used 32 flatbed bogeys which belong to the army in its journey to Visakhapatnam.
The assistance from the armed forces comes at a time when several hospitals in the country have issued notices to say they have only a few hours of medical oxygen need for COVID-19 patients.
India today marked a grim milestone in the pandemic, reporting 3,14,835 new daily cases, the highest one-day tally globally. 2,104 people died in the last 24 hours, the highest daily jump in the country.
With many hospitals unable to meet the rising demands for oxygen cylinders and medicines, desperate families and even Covid patients have been taking to social media to seek help for beds, oxygen or medication since the last few weeks.
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