Vietnam gifts 100,000 Covid-19 masks to India

Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung, who also chairs the association, handed over the made-in-Vietnam masks in a symbolic gesture to Indian Ambassador to Vietnam Pranay Verma.

The Covid-19 pandemic is one of the biggest challenges humankind has faced over the last 100 years, he said, noting Vietnam and India can cooperate and exchange experience to jointly defeat this outbreak.

India has reported over 20,000 infections, claiming 645 lives as of Wednesday.

In order to help the country of 1.3 billion combat the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, the association has called on businesses in the information and communications sector to donate 100,000 antibacterial cloth masks to India.

Ambassador Pranay Verma received the gift on behalf of the Indian Red Cross Society and thanked VIFA and the people of Vietnam for their friendly gesture, stressing the masks would be allocated to Indian localities in the most suitable way to combat the Covid-19.

Vietnam has donated over a million antibacterial masks and other medical supplies to countries worst-hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, including Cambodia, China, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Laos, Japan, Russia, Spain, Sweden, the U.K. and the U.S.

Vietnamese companies are capable of producing eight million antibacterial cloth masks a day, with the government allowing their export after domestic demand was met.

The country has reported no new Covid-19 cases since last Thursday, with the current patient count at 45. There have been no deaths.

The pandemic has claimed over 177,600 lives and spread to 210 countries and territories.