US, UK lead global efforts to help India’s Covid crisis: paper

LONDON, April 26 (MENA) - International efforts to help India fight its devastating coronavirus crisis have stepped up as the White House said the US would immediately provide raw materials for vaccine manufacture and the UK announced it had dispatched ventilators and oxygen to Delhi, The Guardian reported.

France and Germany are also set to send much-needed oxygen to India in the coming days as it battles the world’s worst outbreak. Pakistan, a traditional foe, offered medical equipment and supplies after the prime minister, Imran Khan, tweeted prayers for a “speedy recovery”.

India reported 349,691 new cases on Sunday, a record increase for the fourth consecutive day, and 2,767 people dead. Hospitals are running short of life-saving oxygen and patients are dying while they wait to see doctors.

It is feared that the official statistics and a death toll of 192,311 are underestimating the scale of the crisis as experts believe many people are not going to get tested, or lack access to healthcare.

Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, said the country was facing a “storm” of infections. “Our spirits were high after successfully dealing with the first wave,” he said in a radio address on Sunday. “But this storm has shaken the nation.”

The US had been facing increasing pressure to lift export controls on raw materials intended to boost its own domestic vaccine supply, which Indian vaccine manufacturers said was slowing down their ability to produce jabs.

The National Security Council spokeswoman, Emily Horne, said in a statement that the US would send raw materials required for India to manufacture the AstraZeneca vaccine, as well as therapeutics, rapid diagnostic test kits, ventilators and protective equipment for frontline workers. “The United States is working around the clock to deploy available resources and supplies,” she said.

The UK package includes 495 oxygen concentrators, which can extract oxygen from the air when hospital systems have run out, 120 non-invasive ventilators and 20 manual ventilators. It is expected to arrive in Delhi on Tuesday with further shipments later in the week.

Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, said Britain stood “side by side with India as a friend and partner […] I’m determined to make sure that the UK does everything it can to support the international community in the global fight against pandemic.”

The US president, Joe Biden, has previously said the US will not supply vaccines to other countries until it has enough supplies at home but the US’s top infectious diseases expert, Anthony Fauci, said on Sunday the US would review how to help increase India’s vaccine supply or helping them “to essentially make vaccines themselves”. India is one of the world’s largest vaccine manufacturers.Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, said the country was facing a “storm” of infections. “Our spirits were high after successfully dealing with the first wave,” he said in a radio address on Sunday. “But this storm has shaken the nation.”

The US had been facing increasing pressure to lift export controls on raw materials intended to boost its own domestic vaccine supply, which Indian vaccine manufacturers said was slowing down their ability to produce jabs.