World's largest cargo plane to arrive in India with medical aid from UK

The world's largest cargo plane Antonov 124 left Belfast in Northern Ireland on Friday evening with medical aids as part of the UK's latest response to India's COVID-19 crisis, the British government said as per a PTI report.

The massive Antonov 124 aircraft is expected to land in Delhi on Sunday morning after which the Indian Red Cross will help transfer them to hospitals.

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), which has funded supplies, said airport staff worked through the night to load the life-saving kit aboard.

Each of the three oxygen generation units - the size of 40-foot freight containers - produces 500 litres of oxygen per minute, enough for 50 people to use at a time.

"The UK is sending surplus oxygen generators from Northern Ireland to India. This life-saving equipment will support the country's hospitals as they care for vulnerable COVID patients," said UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.

"The UK and India are working together to tackle this pandemic. No one is safe until we are all safe," he said.

The latest set of supplies were announced earlier and follow 200 ventilators and 495 oxygen concentrators sent from the UK to India last month, also funded by the FCDO. The assistance package has been sourced by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the offer by Northern Ireland's health service is in addition to 1,000 ventilators offered by the DHSC.

India on Saturday reported 4,01,078 more people testing positive. The cumulative caseload in the country now stands at 2,18,92,676, said the Union health ministry on Saturday morning.