Indian Air Force airlifts medical equipment to Ladakh to augment COVID-19 testing capacity

The Indian Air Force (IAF) on Saturday airlifted to Ladakh medical equipment weighing 1,700 kg, including bio-safety cabinets and centrifuges, which will help augment COVID-19 testing facilities in the union territory, officials said.

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (CSIR-IIIM) in Jammu provided the equipment.

"The IAF's Chinook and AN-32 helicopters airlifted a payload of 850 kgs each, comprising a total of four bio-safety cabinets, two centrifuges and two stabilizers to Leh and Kargil. The items worth over Rs one crore were handed over by CSIR-IIIM Jammu for the UT of Ladakh," Jammu-based Defence PRO Lt Col Devender Anand said.

Last year, CSIR-IIIM director D S Reddy had promised the equipment to Ladakh in collaboration with as part of its corporate social responsibility to augment COVID-19 testing capacity in the union territory's two districts -- Leh and Kargil.

The Union Territory of Ladakh has recorded 152 new CVOID-19 cases, taking the infection count to 13,089, according to an official bulletin on Saturday.

Ladakh had recorded a total of 135 COVID-related deaths -- 91 in Leh district and 44 in Kargil district -- since the outbreak of the pandemic last year.