KUWAIT: Kuwait Red Crescent Society (KRCS) announced on Monday a planeload of relief supplies took off from Abdullah Al-Mubarak Air Base for India to deliver medical supplies to the nation's hospitals, where coronavirus casualties have surged alarmingly.

The 40-ton cargo includes medical materials, medicines and oxygen cylinders.

In a statement to KUNA, KRCS Director General Abdulrahman Al-Aoun said the humanitarian mission is part of the society's activities to relieve the burden of Indian hospitals, in line with Kuwait's position of standing on the side of friendly nations.

Kuwait is in full solidarity with India under the current dire health conditions, he said, affirming that the society is seeking to place all possible medical resources at New Delhi's disposal.

KRCS will coordinate with the Kuwait Embassy in India and the Indian Red Cross to deliver the medical supplies to hospitals urgently to back up the nation's efforts in treating people sickened with the coronavirus, he added.

He affirmed keenness on partaking in humanitarian efforts to relieve the friendly Indian people in line with guidelines of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

"We are deeply alarmed due to the drastic surge in the number of the coronavirus casualties in India," Aoun said, affirming the resolve to aid the afflicted large country -- of some 1.3 billion people -- in an urgent manner.

Concluding, he expressed KRCS' condolences to the friendly Indian people on the casualties inflicted by the virus. - KUNA