We stand with India in Covid-19 fight, supplies being delivered: German Consul General

Better to be cautious than sorry on India Covid-19 variant, says Bukart

The city’s over 200 German companies have activated a critical, collaborative effort to combat the pandemic second wave through multiple initiatives linked to oxygen plants, ventilators and beds to boost the Covid-19 care infrastructure, says German Consul General, Bengaluru, Achim Burkart in an interview with DH.

How have the German firms responded to the crisis?

They have flown in 120 oxygen concentrators. With local Rotary chapters, they are organising 500 hospital beds for non-critical care cases, under the level of intensive care. There has been a lot of social impact. They are also supporting children who have lost their parents to the pandemic.

Nationwide, SAP worked with the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce (IGCC) to put up a platform where all the interested companies looking for partners could collaborate. As many as 1,600 companies are part of the IGCC.

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Germany favours more production facilities to Intellectual Property Rights relaxations. Why?

My government has always focused on producing more vaccines. We are the biggest partner in the CoVax initiative for the export of free vaccines. We need more production facilities.

India is one of the biggest production delivery partners for our medicines. When I was in Zambia, I discovered that 95% of the medicines available there were made in India. The cooperation of the scientific sector of both countries is critical.

Covid-19 has restricted travel between India and Germany. But is there potential for growth post-pandemic?

In the pre-pandemic period, we had 25,000 Indian students in Germany. We now have 10 flights between the two countries under the Air Bubble arrangement. During the pre-pandemic times, we had 12 weekly flights to Bengaluru. We wanted to add another six flights connecting the city with Munich to make it 18 flights a week. Post-pandemic, even with the change in working habits, the potential for growth is strong.

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How has Germany reacted to the emergence of an 'Indian variant' of the virus?

The Indian variant is being discussed in the World Health Organization (WHO). It is better to be cautious about it than sorry. So, most European Union countries blocked travel to and from India, some of them too heavily. We don’t want travel restrictions. We are waiting for the WHO findings.

There is a lot of criticism about India’s lack of preparedness for the second wave. How do you see it?

These are questions that can be answered after the pandemic. Now, we need to save lives. When numbers are more, there are so many critics. We, the people, need to be responsible too. I wouldn’t have gone to a political or a religious gathering.

With this tsunami wave of Covid-19 infections, every health system would be stretched. We need to make them resilient. We should not sit back and be complacent.