India provides oxygen to Indonesia to help tackle Covid-19

New Delhi/Jakarta, Aug 24 (UNI) An Indian naval ship arrived in Tanjung Priok port in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Tuesday with oxygen tanks, as part of assistance to the Southeast Asian nation to deal with the severe Delta variant of the Covid-19 pandemic.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, in a tweet, also applauded the Indian Navy for delivering the oxygen tanks.

“INS Airavat arrives in Indonesia with Oxygen tanks. Act East in action once again.

Applaud the actions of Indian Navy,” he tweeted, with the hashtag #SAGAR.

SAGAR – Security, And Growth for All in the Region –epitomises India’s vision for the Indo-Pacific.

This is the second time that India is providing oxygen to Indonesia to deal with the Covid pandemic. It has earlier supplied oxygen on July 24.

The Indian Embassy in Jakarta tweeted that INS Airavat arrived carrying 10 oxygen tanks.

“INS Airavat carrying 10 ISO cryogenic tanks arrived at Tanjung Priok port on 24.08.2021,” it said in a tweet, and added that Indian Ambassador Manoj K Bharti handed over the humanitarian aid to Bpk Sumarjaya, Acting Head, Crisis Centre, Ministry of Health, Indonesia.

An Indian navy spokesperson tweeted that Indian Navy’s Landing Ship Tank (Large) INS Airavat arrived at Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta, Indonesia to deliver 10 Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) containers, based on the requirement projected by the Government of Indonesia.

The spokesperson of the Indian Navy said after unloading the oxygen INS Airavat will continue on its journey to deliver oxygen supplies to other countries.

“India and Indonesia enjoy a strong cultural bond and partnership as well as work together in maritime domain towards a safer Indo-Pacific and the two navies regularly engage in bilateral exercises and coordinated patrols,” the spokesperson said.

According to a PIB statement, INS Airavat, with a primary role to carry out amphibious operations, is also configured to perform HADR or High Availability Disaster Recovery missions, and has been a part of various relief efforts across the Indian Ocean in the past.

Earlier, the same ship had carried medical aid and had handed over five Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) containers (100 MT) and 300 Oxygen Concentrators to Indonesia on July 24.

Indonesia recorded the lowest daily tally of Covid-19 cases in more than two months on Sunday, with figures returning to the level before the highly contagious Delta variant began to dominate new infections.

The country has added 12,408 new cases in the past 24 hours, the lowest daily count since June 16, to take its total to 3,979,456, government figures show, the Jakarta Globe said.

There have been 1,030 Covid-19 deaths in the 24-hour period, bringing the total death toll to 126,372. The daily death toll has been above the 1,000 mark since July 16.

The total number of active cases stands at 306,760, also the lowest in over a month.