NEW DELHI: SpiceXpress has airlifted 800 oxygen concentrators from Hong Kong to Delhi amid the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic that has resulted in an acute shortage of oxygen in the country, it said on Saturday.
"The oxygen concentrators will reach Delhi via Kolkata, where the aircraft landed at around 7 pm (on Monday)," SpiceXpress, the cargo arm of SpiceJet, said in a statement.
Ajay Singh, chairman and managing director, SpiceJet, said the airline, along with SpiceHealth, is "looking at bringing more than 10,000 oxygen concentrators in the coming days from across the globe".
SpiceHealth, a healthcare company launched by the promoters of SpiceJet, has conducted more than 20 lakh RT-PCR tests in India till date.
Twenty people died at Delhi's Jaipur Golden Hospital, their lives ebbing away as the hospital waited for its oxygen stock to be replenished, officials said on Saturday, the fifth day of a deepening crisis over the scarcity of oxygen, which is vital to save the lives of critically-ill COVID-19 patients.
A record single-day spike of 3,46,786 cases pushed India's COVID-19 tally to 1,66,10,481, while the number of active cases crossed the 25-lakh mark, the health ministry said on Saturday.
The death toll due to the viral disease climbed to 1,89,544 with a record 2,624 single-day fatalities, the ministry's data updated at 8 am showed.