Indian community presents medical equipment to aid HCM City’s COVID-19 fight
The Vietnam Fatherland Front Committee of Ho Chi Minh City on August 20 held a virtual event to receive an ECMO machine worth 145,000 USD donated by Indian businesses and expats to help the city fight COVID-19.
The machine will be sent to HCM City Hospital for Tropical Diseases where many COVID-19 patients in severe conditions are being treated.
Speaking at the event, Indian Consul General in HCM City Madan Mohan Sethi said India and Vietnam boast long-standing relations and close friendship and has always been supporting each other during difficult times.
The Government and people of Indian want to show solidarity with Vietnamese people and HCM City authorities as the rapidly spreading COVID-19 pandemic is taking heavy toll on the city, he said.
With support of the Indian Consulate General in HCM City and the Indian Business Chamber in Vietnam (INCHAM), the Indian community in the southern region has raised funds to buy the ECMO machine for the hospital as a way it shoulders the burden with the host city, Sethi said.
He unveiled that the Government of India will provide 300 oxygen generators, capable of producing 10 litres of oxygen per minute each, and 100 cu.m of liquid medical oxygen (LMO) to aid Vietnam’s pandemic combat.
Transported by sea, the medical supplies are expected to arrive in HCM City by the end of this month, the official noted.
He went on to say that the Consulate General of India in HCM City stands ready to help provide advanced training for about 200 medical workers in HCM City and 300 others in other southern localities.
Chairwoman of the municipal Fatherland Front Committee To Thi Bich Chau, for her part, thanked the Indian Consulate General and Indian people in the South for their donation and expected that Sethi will forge stronger healthcare cooperation, particularly in the COVID-19 combat, between HCM City and India.
She also proposed him to help HCM City gain access to India-made COVID-19 vaccines and treatment medicines.
In addition to the ECMO machine, INCHAM also donated 200 million VND in cash and 2.5 tonnes of rice to HCM City and cooperated with local authorities to provide volunteers with necessary items, such as medicines, food and personal protective gears./.