French Air Force aircraft to bring ventilators, test kits tomorrow

New Delhi, July 27: A French Air Force aircraft will bring ventilators, test kits and other medical equipments to India on Tuesday as part of COVID-19 assistance by France, its embassy said.

President Emmanuel Macron had recently announced the donation of medical equipment to India, as well as provision of technical expertise, according to a statement by the French embassy.

As part of this medical assistance package, France is donating to India 50 Osiris-3 ventilators and 70 Yuwell 830 ventilators with BiPAP mode, it said.

Osiris ventilators are particularly useful for emergency transport, intra-hospital transfer and recovery. They have different ventilation modes, including non-invasive ventilation, it said.

The Yuwell 830 ventilators have bi-level positive airway pressure (BiPAP) -- a non-invasive technique to supply oxygen to the lungs without intubation. These high-quality ventilators meet the needs of Indian hospitals, the embassy said.

France will also donate 50,000 high-quality serological IgG/IgM test kits and 50,000 nose and throat swabs and modes of medical transport, the statement said.

The French embassy said an expert mission on inter-hospital transfers by military means was also being dispatched. The French Air Force will deliver the equipment on Tuesday.

"The equipment and the personnel are being transported on a French Air Force A330 MRTT equipped with a Morpheus kit, which enables the transport of critically ill patients," it said.

Emmanuel Lenain, ambassador of France to India, will hand over the medical equipment to R K Jain, secretary general of the Indian Red Cross Society, at Palam Air Force Station in Delhi, the embassy said.