US to supply vaccine components, medical supplies as India battles COVID-19 spike

AMERICA will immediately send raw materials for COVID-19 vaccines, medical equipment and protective gear to help India respond to a massive surge in coronavirus infections, US President Joe Biden said on Sunday (Apr 25).

"Just as India sent assist with america as our hospitals were strained early in the pandemic, we are determined to greatly help India in its time of need," Biden said on Twitter following the White House announced a set of measures.

National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne said US officials were "working night and day" to deploy available resources and supplies to greatly help India manufacture the Covishield vaccine and have a tendency to the millions of Indians who are sick and dying. AMERICA may also send therapeutics, rapid diagnostic test kits and ventilators.

Washington was under mounting pressure to help India, the world's largest democracy, after Britain, France and Germany pledged aid over the weekend.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged all citizens to be vaccinated and exercise caution, as the united states set a global record for new COVID-19 infections within a day.

AMERICA was also pursuing options to supply India with oxygen generation and related supplies, Horne said.

US Representative Ro Khanna, Democratic vice-chair of the Congressional India Caucus, welcomed the announcement but urged Biden to go further and present India the United States' unused COVID-19 vaccines doses from AstraZeneca.

"Let's utilize the US military and get as much oxygen and AstraZeneca doses to India as fast as we are able to," he said.

The most notable US infectious disease official, Dr Anthony Fauci, told ABC News on Sunday such a move was "something that certainly will be actively considered."

AstraZeneca's vaccine isn't yet approved in the usa, which has stockpiled an incredible number of doses, and top US health officials have said they have sufficient doses of approved versions by three other drugmakers to inoculate all Americans in coming weeks. The nation's top business lobbying group has also pushed the administration to send AstraZeneca's vials to countries grappling with rising cases.

The White House had no touch upon the opportunity of providing AstraZeneca doses to India.

Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, said the engagement of top Biden administration officials reflected a welcome "seriousness of purpose" in addressing the crisis in India, but details were lacking.

He said the messaging around any loan of AstraZeneca doses ought to be carefully prepared to avoid the impression that Washington would be offloading "something that it doesn't want."

Senior US officials have expressed concern that new variants of the virus emerging in India could undermine progress manufactured in the United States in fighting the pandemic.

The brand new wave of infections also threatens the monetary recovery of India, the sixth-largest economy on the globe.

Horne said america would send a team of professionals to work with India from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and US Agency for International Development.

As well as the immediate aid, the united states Development Finance Corporation will fund a considerable expansion of manufacturing capability for Indian vaccine maker Biological E, or BioE, enabling the business to create at least 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of 2022.