Month: May 2021

** Sent 3,000 oxygen concentrators to help India: UNICEF

The United Nations child rights agency has supplied more than 500 high-flow nasal cannulas and 85 RT-PCR machines.

The UNICEF said on Saturday that it sent critical lifesaving supplies, including 3,000 oxygen concentrators, to help India amid the ravaging second coronavirus wave.

The United Nations child rights agency has supplied more than 500 high-flow nasal cannulas and 85 RT-PCR machines.

** Taiwan’s first batch of COVID-19 aid leaves for India

Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said the aid consignment left on a China Airlines freighter on Sunday morning and would be received by India’s Red Cross

Taiwan’s first batch of aid to India to help it fight a surging increase in COVID-19 infections left for New Delhi on Sunday, consisting of 150 oxygen concentrators and 500 oxygen cylinders, Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said.

** IIT-Bombay finds innovative way to generate oxygen

An official statement claimed that initial tests conducted at the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay have shown “promising results”.

Amid the shortage of medical oxygen for treating COVID-19 patients, the IIT-Bombay has come up with an ingenious solution to help address the issue by converting a nitrogen unit into an oxygen generating unit, the institute said on Thursday.

The pilot project, which has been tested successfully, relies on a simple technological intervention of converting a Pressure Swing Adsorption nitrogen unit into a PSA oxygen unit, according to an official statement.

** Herpetologist Deepak Veerappan has a snake named after him

Xylophis deepaki has iridescent scales and is just 20 cm long

In the first four months of 2021, the Western Ghats presented new butterflies, frogs, fruit flies, and even a freshwater crab. Joining the list is a tiny snake of just 20 cm length with iridescent scales – Xylophis deepaki, first stumbled upon in a coconut plantation in Kanyakumari, is now reported to be an endemic species of Tamil Nadu and has been sighted in a few locations in the southern part of the Western Ghats. The species is named in honour of Indian herpetologist Deepak Veerappan for his contribution in erecting a new subfamily Xylophiinae to accommodate wood snakes. The team suggests the common name Deepak’s wood snake.