JAKARTA: Indonesia said on Tuesday it was importing emergency oxygen from neighbouring Singapore as hospitals crumbled under the weight of Covid-19, with the Delta variant continuing to wreak havoc around the globe.

Faced with the threat of the highly infectious strain which continues to exact a heavy toll in human tragedies and to disrupt sports events worldwide, the global vaccination drive is heating up.

On Tuesday, the United States began sending Vietnam two million doses, part of a first batch of 80 million doses that US President Joe Biden has pledged to allocate to countries struggling to tame the pandemic.

Published in Dawn, July 7th, 2021