KUWAIT: The Ministry of Social Affairs announced launching an urgent donation campaign to aid India in the face of the new mutant coronavirus variant. The campaign, held with the participation of the Indian diplomatic mission in Kuwait, aims to ease suffering of the Indian people affected by the pandemic, assistant undersecretary for social development Hana Al-Hajeri said in a press statement on Sunday. Charity societies taking part in the campaign have presented an official request to the ministry to launch the campaign, she noted. Meanwhile, she said that the societies also launched urgent donation campaign to aid Palestinians.

In the meantime, the Public Authority of Industry (PAI) announced dispatching the second rescue oxygen shipment through an air bridge allocated for sending rescue goods from Kuwait to India upon a Cabinet decision. The second batch is estimated at around 210 tons of liquid oxygen and 2,100 oxygen gas cylinders. Upon instructions of Minister of Commerce and Industry Abdullah Al-Salman, a well-examined plan has been devised for outgoing and incoming of oxygen cylinders to guarantee dispatch of the largest amount possible of the liquid oxygen to India in the quickest possible means, PAI said in a statement.

PAI also coordinates with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to follow the scheduled plan, and accordingly PAI upon the instructions of the Authority Chairman Abdulkareem Taqi took all the needed procedures, in cooperation with Kuwait factories producing liquid oxygen -- which worked at their highest capacity to meet the demands. Furthermore, PAI cooperated with Kuwait Ports Authority (KPA) and Kuwait General Administration of Customs to facilitate the humanitarian mission. - KUNA