Saudi Arabia in its latest move has come to India’s rescue by providing 80 metric tonnes liquid oxygen and high capacity cryogenic tanks as the country is running low on supplies due to an unprecedented spike in COVID-19 cases.
The supply shipment is being undertaken in cooperation with the Adani group and Linde company.
“Embassy of India is proud to partner with Adani group and M/s Linde in shipping much-needed 80MT liquid oxygen to India. Our heartfelt thanks to the Ministry of Health Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for all their help, support, and cooperation,” the Indian mission in Riyadh tweeted.
Taking to Twitter, Adani wrote, “Thank you @IndianEmbRiyadh. Indeed, actions speak louder than words. We are on an urgent mission to secure oxygen supplies from across the world. This first shipment of 4 ISO cryogenic tanks with 80 tons of liquid oxygen is now on its way from Dammam to Mundra.”
As soon as the news was out, it did not take long for the Twitterati to trend ‘#OxygenJihad’ in a bid to mock the failed actors and members of the ‘Godi Media,’ who often do not deter from spreading islamophobia.
India is struggling with a second wave of the pandemic with more than 3,00,000 daily new COVID-19 cases being reported in the past few days, and hospitals in several States are reeling under a shortage of medical oxygen and beds.
To combat the growing demand for oxygen in the country, India has reached out to various countries to procure containers and oxygen cylinders under operation ‘Oxygen Maitri’.
On Friday, the Union Home Ministry said it was in talks for the import of high-capacity oxygen-carrying tankers from Singapore and the UAE.
Meanwhile, President of the European Council Charles Michel said in a tweet, “The EU stands in solidarity with Indian people amidst resurgent COVID19 pandemic. The fight against the virus is a common fight. We will discuss our support and cooperation at EU-India Leaders’ meeting on 8 May with @narendramodi and @antoniocostapm”.