US promises help to fight virus as Vardhan interacts with counterpart

New Delhi: The US has assured India of its unwavering commitment to engage, collaborate and fight the raging Covid crisis together as the health ministers of the two countries discussed the current surge in India.

During a virtual meeting between US Health and Human Services (HSS) Secretary Xavier Becerra and Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Friday, the leaders noted the India-US bilateral cooperation on Covid-19, which builds on a strong foundation, has been crucial not only for the health of our two countries, but critical to the global response as well.

The ministers discussed the ongoing Covid surge in India and reaffirmed strong US support in time of crisis. India-Africa vax alliance must after Biden’s C gesture India and Africa must forge a vaccine alliance to consolidate gains following US President Joe Bidens decision to suspend patents that come in the way of mass producing Covid-19 vaccines. The Biden administration’s brave move, which implies taking on the powerful and highly organised Big Pharma, follows intense lobbying by India and South Africa at the WTO, along with 60 other nations. No cases in 180 districts in a week, says Vardhan: No fresh cases have been detected in 180 districts in India in last 7 days, Vardhan said. In his virtual address at the 25th meeting of the group of ministers to discuss the pandemic situation, the minister said as on date, 1.34% of patients were in ICU, 0.39% on ventilator support and 3.7% on oxygen support.

Meanwhile, Vardhan said 1,70,841 patients across India are on ventilator and 9,02,291 patients are on O2 support.

Further, over 84 lakh vaccine doses are still available with states/UTs and over 53 lakh doses will be distributed to them in the next 3 days, the Centre said. So far, 17.49 crore doses have been provided to states/UTs.