PM Imran expresses solidarity with India as the country battles a ‘dangerous’ coronavirus wave

F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday expressed solidarity with the people of India as the country battles a dangerous wave of coronavirus, saying that world should fight the “global challenge” together.  

“I want to express our solidarity with the people of India as they battle a dangerous wave of COVID-19,” tweeted PM Imran.

The premier said Pakistani prayers are with the people of India and everyone in the world suffering from the pandemic for a “speedy recovery”.

“We must fight this global challenge confronting humanity together,” said the PM.

The PM’s tweet came an hour after Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had extended Pakistan’s heartfelt sympathies to the families affected by COVID-19 in India.

“We express our support to the people of India in the wake of the current wave of COVID-19 infections, that has hit our region hard,” said Pakistan’s top diplomat.

Qureshi said that on behalf of the people of Pakistan he extends “heartfelt sympathies to the affected families in India”.

“COVID-19 is yet another reminder that humanitarian issues require responses beyond political consideration,” said the foreign minister.

He added that Pakistan is working with SAARC countries to foster cooperation to tackle the pandemic.

India’s daily coronavirus cases create new world record

India’s coronavirus infections rose by 346,786 overnight, the health ministry said on Saturday, setting a new world record for the third consecutive day, as overwhelmed hospitals in the densely-populated country begged for oxygen supplies.

India is in the grip of a rampaging second wave of the pandemic, hitting a rate of one COVID-19 death in just under every four minutes in Delhi as the capital’s underfunded health system buckles.

The government has deployed military planes and trains to get oxygen from the far corners of the country to Delhi. Television showed an oxygen truck arriving at Delhi’s Batra hospital after it issued an SOS saying it had 90 minutes of oxygen left for its 260 patients.

“Please help us get oxygen, there will be a tragedy here,” Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a conference on Friday.

India surpassed the the US record of 297,430 single-day infections anywhere in the world on Thursday, making it the global epicentre of a pandemic that is waning in many other countries. The Indian government had itself declared it had beaten back the coronavirus in February when new cases fell to all time lows.

However, COVID-19 deaths across India rose by 2,624 over the past 24 hours, the highest daily rate for the country so far. Crematoriums across Delhi said they were full up and asked grieving families to wait.

The country of around 1.3 billion has now recorded a total of 16.6 million cases, including 189,544 deaths.

(With additional input from Reuters)