The world’s largest cargo plane leaves Belfast in Northern Ireland(NI) on Friday, accommodating three 18-tonne oxygen generators and 1,000 ventilators as part of the UK’s medical aid to India’s COVID-19 emergency, the British government said. The medical equipment is loaded on an Antonov An-124, a Russian plane originally designed in the 1980s to carry Soviet tanks.
The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), which has funded to supplies, stated airport staff have been employed through the night to load the life-saving kit aboard the massive aircraft. It is anticipated to land in Delhi at 0800 IST on Sunday morning after which the Indian Red Cross will facilitate the transfer to hospitals.
Each of the three oxygen generation units – the size of 40 foot freight containers – generates 500 litres of oxygen per minute, sufficient for 50 people to use simultaneously.
“The UK is sending surplus oxygen generators from Northern Ireland to India. This life-saving equipment will support the country’s hospitals as they care for vulnerable COVID patients,” said UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.
He added that the UK and India are jointly planning together to uproot this pandemic.
The recent set of supplies were declared earlier and 200 ventilators and 495 oxygen concentrators sent from the UK to India last month, also funded by the FCDO.