Indonesia Sends Aid to India in the Form of Oxygen Tanks

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – Indonesia has sent 200 oxygen concentrators to India to help the country deal with its Covid-19 outbreak. The aid comes as the World Health Organization [WHO] reported that the country has 23,340,938 confirmed cases as of May 12.

Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi sent off the aid at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Tangerang, Banten on Wednesday, May 12.

“[The oxygen concentrators] are a form of humanitarian aid that reflects Indonesia’s solidarity with India,” she said.

Also read: 59 Arrivals From India Contracted Covid-19, Says Indonesian Official

“We sent the oxygen concentrators, two days after the Ministry of Industry and a number of business associations sent 1400 cylindrical oxygen tubes of about 40 liters to India. We hope that the aid will help India get its Covid-19 pandemic under control.”

Minister of Industry Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita noted that “India needs oxygen tanks in dealing with its Covid-19 cases. The aid is sent by the gas, petrochemical and textile industries,” he said in a press release on Tuesday.

“The tubes are the first of 3500 units that we will send to India. Their need for oxygen is urgent, as the country has about 3900 deaths from Covid-19 on a daily basis, while they have nearly 400 thousand coronavirus cases during the same time period.”

Also read: Indonesia Temporarily Bans Flights From India: Tourism Minister

Indonesia has banned flights from India since the country’s Covid-19 cases started to surge last April, leaving 254,197 deaths.

Hundreds of Indian nationals, as well as Indonesian citizens living in India, attempted to evade the surge by flying to Indonesia, many of them in chartered flights to such Indonesian cities as Jakarta and Pekanbaru.

The Indian strain of Covid-19, or B.1.617, is one of three foreign variants found in Indonesia, along with the B.1.1.7 mutation from Great Britain and the B.1.351 strain from South Africa. 

(Writers: Achmad Nasrudin Yahya, Dian Erika Nugraheny, Elsa Catriana | Editors: Diamanty Meiliana, Yoga Sukmana)

Sources: 

https://nasional.kompas.com/read/2021/05/12/12315931/indonesia-kirim-200-oksigen-konsentrator-ke-india-menlu-bentuk-solidaritas. 

https://nasional.kompas.com/read/2021/05/12/12370381/pakai-garuda-indonesia-berangkatkan-hibah-200-oksigen-konsentrator-untuk. 

https://money.kompas.com/read/2021/05/11/155557726/indonesia-kirim-1400-tabung-oksigen-ke-india.