IAF begins Airlifting of oxygen cylinders for "filling & transporting" to various locations across India.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) on Friday said that airlifting of big oxygen tankers has been started by the (IAF) from their place of use to the filling stations across the country to speed up the distribution of much-needed oxygen.

As part of the operation, C-17 and IL-76 aircraft of IAF airlifted two empty cryogenic oxygen containers and one IL-76 aircraft airlifted one empty container to Panagarh yesterday, said the IAF.

• This comes amid reports of oxygen shortage in various parts of the country as the number of COVID-9 cases and deaths continue to rise.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had chaired a high-level meeting to review the oxygen supply across the country and discuss ways and means to boost its availability.

He spoke about the need to work rapidly on multiple aspects - increasing production of oxygen, increasing the speed of distribution and using innovative ways to provide oxygen support to health facilities.

Meanwhile, India recorded 3,32,730 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the highest single-day spike since the pandemic broke out last year. India has crossed the mark of 3 lakh COVID-19 cases for two consecutive days now.

This has taken the cumulative count of the COVID infection in the country to 1,62,63,695.

According to the official data issued by the Union Health Ministry, the country has recorded 2,263 new deaths due to COVID-19 in the last 24 hours.