New Delhi, May 26 (IANS): South Korean tech giant Samsung on Wednesday announced that it is importing one million innovative Low Dead Space (LDS) syringes to support India's Covid vaccination drive.

This is part of the company's Covid-19 Support programme for the country.

"Over the past few weeks, Samsung has focused on providing support to governments with oxygen concentrators and oxygen cylinders and financial grants to purchase more of this equipment, as this was the need of the hour," Partha Ghosh, Vice President and Head of CSR, Samsung India, said in a statement.

"Now, as our country focuses on vaccinating the population, we are supporting this effort with innovative LDS syringes that will help reduce vaccine wastage and vaccinate more people with the same amount of vaccine," Ghosh added.

LDS syringes minimise the amount of drug left in the syringes after an injection, reducing vaccine wastage, and thereby enabling 20 per cent more people to get the dose with the same amount of vaccine.

LDS syringes, airlifted from South Korea, have been delivered to Uttar Pradesh -- 325,000 each to the district administrations in Lucknow and Noida -- while 350,000 LDS syringes will soon be handed over to the Greater Chennai Corporation in Tamil Nadu.

These syringes will be deployed at Covid vaccination centers in the districts.

This innovative syringe has been introduced for usage in a few markets including the US to optimise vaccination.

Samsung has pledged $5 million (Rs 37 crore) as its contribution to India's fight against Covid-19, providing donations to central and state governments and boosting the healthcare sector with essential medical equipment for hospitals, as part of its citizenship initiatives.

Samsung's contribution includes $2 million worth of medical supplies, including 100 oxygen concentrators, 3,000 oxygen cylinders and one million LDS syringes.