US rushes $100-million worth supplies for India’s Covid fight
THE FIRST EMERGENCY RELIEF SHIPMENT WILL INCLUDE 440 OXYGEN CYLINDERS AND REGULATORS DONATED BY CALIFORNIA
NEW DELHI/WASHINGTON: The US is rushing supplies worth more than $100 million, including large oxygen generation systems and raw materials for making 20 million vaccine doses, to back India’s Covid-19 response in the face of a devastating second wave of Coronavirus infections.
The first emergency relief shipment, expected to arrive on a US military transport aircraft from Travis Air Force Base, will include 440 oxygen cylinders and regulators donated by the state of California. The flight will also carry 960,000 rapid diagnostic tests and 100,000 N95 masks provided by USAID.
The aid is in line with a pledge made by President Joe Biden during a phone conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday. Two special US flights carrying equipment and supplies are expected to reach India on Friday and a third on May 3.
The US relief supplies will start flowing in shortly after support packages from Russia and member states of the European Union (EU), part of a global effort to help India cope with record-breaking infections that have surged past the 300,000mark over the past several days. The support will also help address a severe shortage of oxygen, which has been blamed for many deaths in recent days.
On Thursday, Foreign secretary Harsh Shringla said that support is expected from over 40 countries, mostly oxygen-related equipment and critical medicines, to strengthen India’s response to an “unprecedented second wave” of infections. “Thanks to @US_TRANSCOM, @Airmobilitycmd, @Travis60amw & @Dlamil for hustling to prepare critical @USAID medical supplies for shipping. As I’ve said, we’re committed to use every resource at our disposal, within our authority, to support India’s frontline healthcare workers,” US defense secretary Lloyd Austin tweeted.
A statement from the White House said: “Just as India sent assistance to the United States when our hospitals were strained early in the pandemic, the United States is determined to help India in its time of need.”
The emergency assistance from the US will include an initial delivery of 1,100 oxygen cylinders that will remain in India, 1,700 concentrators to obtain oxygen from ambient air, multiple large-scale oxygen generation units to support up to 20 patients each and additional mobile units to target specific shortages. A team of US experts will support oxygen generation units by working on the ground alongside Indian personnel.
The support will also include raw materials for the Covishield vaccine that the US has redirected from its own order of manufacturing supplies. These materials will allow India to make over 20 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine, the White House statement said.
The US is also sending 15 million N95 masks to protect patients and health care personnel, one million rapid diagnostic tests of the same type used by the White House to provide reliable results in less than 15 minutes, and the first tranche of a planned 20,000 doses of the antiviral drug remdesivir.
The US also plans to send more planeloads of oxygen cylinders. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has locally procured more cylinders and will deliver them to India. CDC experts will work with Indian experts in labs, surveillance and epidemiology, bioinformatics for genomic sequencing and modelling, infection prevention and control, vaccine rollout, and risk communication, the White House said.