We’re ready to provide outbreak-control help to India: China

In light of India facing a vicious second wave of Covid-19 pandemic, China yesterday said it was ready to provide outbreak prevention support and medical supplies

In light of India facing a vicious second wave of Covid-19 pandemic, putting the country’s health infrastructure under severe strain, China yesterday said it was ready to provide outbreak prevention support and medical supplies to its neighbour.

India has reported 314,835 new coronavirus related cases in the last 24 hours. This is the highest single-day tally recorded anywhere in the world since the pandemic started in December 2019. The death toll in the country also jumped to 2,104.

As per official Covid19 world tracker, India’s tally of confirmed cases is now nearly 16 million, second only to America’s count of almost 32 million.

The welcome gesture came from the Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin in Beijing in response to a query by Chinese state media on the pandemic situation in India.

Wang said, “The Covid-19 epidemic is the common enemy of all mankind. The international community needs to unite as one to fight against the epidemic.”

“The Chinese side notes that the epidemic situation in India is severe and there is a temporary shortage of epidemic prevention and medical supplies. We are ready to provide necessary support and assistance to India so that they can control the epidemic,” Wang added.

Whether the ‘Help’ has been officially extended to New Delhi by Beijing could not be ascertained yet.

It has also come to light that when Indian private companies where trying to source Covid-related supplies from China, they experienced a very sudden escalation of air freight costs.

Last year, when the outbreak was most severe in China, India was among the countries which came forward to help Beijing with medical supplies. At that time, India had provided 15 tonnes of medical supplies comprising masks, gloves and emergency medical equipment at a cost of about ₹2.11 crore. This included 100,000 surgical masks, 500,000 pairs of surgical gloves, 4,000 N-95 masks, 75 infusion pumps, 30 enteral feeding pumps, and 21 defibrillators.

These supplies were flown to China in an India Air Force flight and were handed over to a Hubei charity federation in the city of Wuhan.

Last year in February, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also written to President Xi Jinping, extending New Delhi’s help to fight the outbreak. This gesture was well appreciated by China’s ambassador to India Sun Weidong.

But soon after, India started to face an uphill task and China had returned the favour in April, dispatching dozens of aircraft with Covid-related medical supplies. Many India-bound flights had taken off carrying 390 tonnes of medical supplies from Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xi’an and Hong Kong.