Medical equipment bound for India was loaded onto a FedEx plane at Newark airport.handout
Two planes lifted off early Saturday from Newark airport bound for Mumbai, each stuffed with oxygen equipment and other critical medical aid to help India battle what is now the worldâs worst outbreak of COVID-19.
The airlift was organized in part by a group of Massachusetts business executives of Indian descent, who in the space of just a few days assembled millions of dollars in equipment and donations for the virus-ravaged country.
The flights are part of a local effort anchored by Naresh Ramarajan and Gitika Srivastava, founders of Navya Network, who are working their connections to supply thousands of oxygen concentrators, which are smaller medical devices that can be used in homes to help infected patients breathe. Theyâve raised about $2.5 million so far, and even added a second plane to fly the donated material to India on Saturday: a Boeing 777 cargo plane donated by FedEx, loaded with 3,400 oxygen concentrators and other medical products, and an Air India passenger plane with several hundred more oxygen concentrators. Air India expects to bring more oxygen concentrators on other regularly scheduled flights, and there is another large cargo shipment scheduled for later this month.