Cargo Flights En Route India with COVID-19 Medical Supplies Stopped by China

New Delhi- Despite India facing an acute shortage of the supply of medical oxygen and other essential medical supplies as the cases of the novel coronavirus is skyrocketing and spiraling out of control with every passing day, China's state-run Sichuan airline suspends cargo flights rushing to India with essential COVID-19 medical supplies. 

This comes after Beijing offered to provide "support and assistance" to India, which is the second-worst COVID-19 affected country in the world with a massive surge in daily cases. Read more

"The Chinese government and people firmly support the Indian government and people in fighting the coronavirus. China is ready to provide support and help according to India's need and is in communication with the Indian side on this," the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told the media on the 24th of April. "We believe that the Indian people will defeat the virus at an early date" he added. 

The airline has suspended all its cargo flights to India for the next 15 days, disrupting the efforts of the private traders who are putting up immense effort to procure the vital oxygen concentrators and other medical supplies from China. Read more

The reason attributed to the suspension of the cargo flights issued by the company is that since the pandemic situation had undergone sudden changes, i\they would, therefore like to avoid imported cases of the deadly infectious virus. 

The airline said that it has suspended its cargo flights on six routes, including Xian to Delhi causing much disarray amongst the private traders in their efforts to procure oxygen concentrators from China. 

Siddharth Sinha of Sino Global Logistics, which is a Shanghai-based freight forwarding company said that reports of Chinese manufacturers increasing the prices by 35 to 40 percent have come to light with freight charges being increased over 20%. 

He also told the Press Trust of India that this decision to suspend flights will now cause a delay in the procurement of oxygen in time as the flights will have to be re-routed through Singapore and other countries through different airlines. 

He added by saying that the decision to suspends flights owing to the coronavirus situation in India is surprising as there is no change in the crews in India and it is the same crew that will fly back to China. 

It is also important to note that Chinese cargo flights and shipping services have been in operation supplying other Chinese products like mobile phone equipment. 

Chinese suppliers have 'inhumanly' resorted to the practice of jacking up prices in the pandemic emergency situation, said Sinha. 

Meanwhile, India yet again witnessed a new highest single-day spike in the cases of the novel coronavirus as a deadly second wave sweeps the country with 3.52 Lakh New Cases and 2,812 Covid-induced fatalities, taking the total active caseload in the country to 28.07 lakh cases. So far, there have been 1.95 lakh covid-induced deaths from across the nation. The fresh surge in the cases of this deadly infectious disease takes the total tally of cases to 1.73 crores. Today marks the fifth consecutive day that India reported over 3 lakh cases on a daily basis. A staggering 10 lakh cases have been reported in the last 72 hours. Read more

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