Edited by: Fern Sidman
Israel will be sending life-saving equipment to India throughout the week to assist it in the ongoing fight against the rapid spread of the coronavirus, according to a Reuters report on Tuesday. COVID-19 infections and deaths are mounting with alarming speed in India with no end in sight to the crisis, as was reported by AP. A leading expert warned that the coming weeks in the country of nearly 1.4 billion people will be “horrible.”
India’s official count of coronavirus cases surpassed 20 million on Tuesday, nearly doubling in the past three months, while deaths officially have passed 220,000. Staggering as those numbers are, the true figures are believed to be far higher as the undercount is an apparent reflection of the troubles in the health care system, according to an AP report.
Infections have surged in India since February in a disastrous turn blamed on more contagious variants of the virus as well as government decisions to allow massive crowds to gather for Hindu religious festivals and political rallies before state elections.
The assistance package from Israel will include thousands of group and individual oxygen generators, which are in dire need in the Indian health system, as well as respirators, medications, and additional medical equipment. Tazpit Press Service reported that Israel’s National Security Council, Health Ministry, Finance Ministry, were all involved in the planning of the mission, in full coordination with the Indian government through Israel’s embassy in New Delhi and the Indian embassy in Israel.
“India is one of Israel’s closest and most important friends. We stand with India, particularly during these difficult times India is experiencing, and are sending life-saving equipment to our Indian brothers and sisters,” Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi said in a statement on Monday.
“Israel and India share strategic ties that span a wide range of political, security, and economic issues. India is one of the most important countries for Israel broadly in the international arena and particularly in Asia-Pacific,” the Foreign Minister said, adding that the emergency assistance is an “expression of deep friendship between our countries, in India’s time of need. This is the true meaning of the mutual guarantee so needed during this period of the global coronavirus crisis.”
“This large-scale operation will save lives and strengthen the important friendship with the people of India,” he said.
The Economic Division at the Israeli MFA, in conjunction with key economic organizations including the Israel-India Chamber of Commerce, the Israel-Asia Chamber of Commerce, the Manufacturers Association of Israel, the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce, the Israel Export Institute, and Start-Up Nation Central, answered the call for Israeli companies working with India and joined Israel’s aid effort.
Amdocs has announced their donation of 150 oxygen generators, which will be transferred to India as part of the Israeli aid package.
The Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) has also joined Israel’s aid effort and will donate oxygen generators and other needed equipment, which will be delivered to those in need in India, including the small Jewish community in Mumbai.
Israeli Ambassador to India Ron Malka tweeted: “In this hour of need, Israel stands with India and is happy to lend a helping hand to our friend.”
Israel is reciprocating India’s aid to Israel given a year ago, when India sent an air delivery of masks, gloves, and raw materials for medications to Israel, and also helped arrange the repatriation of Israeli citizens.
“We recall that at the beginning of the coronavirus crisis last year, India mobilized to assist Israel and within this framework approved the air delivery of masks, gloves and raw materials for medicines to Israel and also helped arrange the repatriation of Israeli citizens,” the statement from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
AP reported on Tuesday that India has witnessed scenes of people dying outside overwhelmed hospitals and funeral pyres lighting up the night sky.
The reported caseload is second only to that of the U.S., which has one-fourth the population of India but has recorded over 32 million confirmed infections. AP reported that the U.S. has also reported more than 2 1/2 times as many deaths as India, at close to 580,000.
India’s top health official, Rajesh Bhushan, refused to speculate last month as to why authorities weren’t better prepared. But the cost is clear: Many people are dying because of shortages of bottled oxygen and hospital beds or because they couldn’t get a COVID-19 test, as was reported by AP.
India’s official average of newly confirmed cases per day has soared from over 65,000 on April 1 to about 370,000, and deaths per day have officially gone from over 300 to more than 3,000. On Tuesday, the health ministry reported 357,229 new cases in the past 24 hours and 3,449 deaths from COVID-19, according to the AP report.
Municipal records for this past Sunday show 1,680 dead in the Indian capital were treated according to the procedures for handling the bodies of those infected with COVID-19. But in the same 24-hour period, only 407 deaths were added to the official toll from New Delhi.
AP reported that the New Delhi High Court announced it will start punishing government officials if supplies of oxygen allocated to hospitals are not delivered. “Enough is enough,” it said.
The challenges are steep in states where elections were held and unmasked crowds probably worsened the spread of the virus. The average number of daily infections in West Bengal state has increased by a multiple of 32 to over 17,000 since the balloting began, according to the AP report.
“It’s a terrifying crisis,” said Dr. Punyabrata Goon, convener of the West Bengal Doctors’ Forum.
Goon added that the state also needs to hasten immunizations. But the world’s largest maker of vaccines is short of shots, the result of lagging manufacturing and raw material shortages.
The AP report indicated that experts are also worried the prices being charged for shots will make it harder for the poor to get vaccinated. On Monday, opposition parties urged the government to make vaccinations free to all Indians. India is vaccinating about 2.1 million people daily, or around 0.15% of its population.
Dr. Ravi Gupta, a virus expert at the University of Cambridge in England told the AP that “This is not going to end very soon. And really … the soul of the country is at risk in a way.”
Last week, the Times of Israel reported that an Israeli nonprofit announced that it was dispatching a large shipment of medical aid to India, where hospitals are struggling to cope with a huge spike in coronavirus cases.
TOI reported that IsraAID is buying supplies especially for the consignment, which will depart from Tel Aviv. They include oxygen machines and other essentials that hospitals are lacking to treat COVID-19 patients, and may be expanded to include syringes for vaccination.
Speaking to the Times of Israel, IsraAID spokesman Ethan Schwartz said, “We have watched closely with concern as we’ve seen growing case numbers in India and the reports coming out of the country in recent days, and it became clear that the time has come to act,”
“With life in Israel returning to a pre-pandemic ‘normal,’ it is crucial to remember our shared responsibility to partner with communities facing the worst of it,” said Yotam Polizer, IsraAID’s CEO who also spoke to TOI. “The pandemic will not be over for anybody until it is over for everybody.”
The TOI reported that Polizer called the situation in India “overwhelming” and said that sending aid is an act of global responsibility.
IsraAID is responding to requests from healthcare providers and nonprofits in India, and is working with the Israel-India Forum at Tel Aviv University. As well as assembling and dispatching the aid consignment, IsraAID will soon start providing advice and support to the healthcare community in India, through a combination of online training and local partners, as was reported by the Times of Israel.
“We will be giving help with technology and data processing solutions that can help deal with health challenges,” said Schwartz. “And we will also be helping to respond to the devastating secondary effects of the pandemic.
“This includes mental health challenges, and we’ll be hoping to address the trauma being faced by medical staff. This is an important part of what is needed, and in a sense it’s helping the helpers.”
