Mumbai, May 9 (PTI) A cargo plane carrying 81,000 kgs of medical equipment, including portable oxygen concentrators, which will be distributed forTata Memorial Centre(TMC) and its associated hospitals in India, landed in Mumbai on Sunday.

The chartered flight, which landed in the morning hours, carried in 3,400 portable oxygen concentrators along with 300,000 N 95 masks, an official release said.

A few hours later, an Air India passenger plane landed in Delhi with an additional 400 concentrators.

These are the third and fourth shipments that the TMC has brought in over the past two weeks, as per the release.

The TMC, besides providing life-saving services, is also sourcing and allocating medical equipment for over 200 hospitals across India that are part of the National Cancer Grid (NCG), the release said.

"We have the singular focus of getting these units to the hospitals throughout India so that many can breathe well. This expedient and organised response to the pandemic is fitting with the TMC's role as an 80-year-old institution focused on delivering quality care to all, including the most vulnerable and underserved in the country," the release quoted TMC director Rajendra Badwe as saying.

The TMC is a tertiary cancer center under the Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India.

"All seven TMC centres across India located at Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Sangrur, Varanasi, Guwahati, Vishakhapatnam and Muzaffarpur, have continued cancer care throughout the pandemic. Together, they have managed to treat over 80,000 patients with cancer in spite of a raging pandemic," the release said.

In addition, over 2,000 patients with cancer and COVID-19 have been treated for COVID-19 in various TMC centres, it said.

In June 2020, TMC partnered with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Maharashtra government and helped set up an ad-hoc 518-bed and 10 ICU-bed capacity COVID-19 facility at the NSCI Dome in Mumbai.

"As soon as the second wave hit, TMC's team of experts drew on this experience to identify lightweight, portable, high-flow oxygen concentrators that would have the maximum impact in saving lives, especially in hospitals that don't have oxygen pipelines," the release added.

On the TMC's effective response to the recent shortage in oxygen supply, Badwe said, "Besides local industry stepping up production of medical grade oxygen, philanthropists like Tata Trusts and other NGOs in Indiaare helpingprocure large oxygenators. We have had an overwhelming response globally, with the Indian diaspora and medical community joining hands to support".

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)