From Oxygen Generation Systems To 'Strike Team' To Vaccines, Here's How US Plans To Help India Amid Recent COVID Surge

Amid the unprecedented surge in Covid-19 cases in India, the United States said that it was working with its allies, friends, and Quad partners about how they can collectively support India in its hour of need.

The development comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden spoke to each other and discussed the COVID-19 situation in their respective countries, including India’s ongoing efforts to contain the second wave of COVID-19 through expedited vaccination efforts, and ensuring supply of critical medicines, therapeutics and healthcare equipment.

"We remember India’s generosity to the United States in the early days of the pandemic, when India offered medications to us as our hospitals were strained," a senior Biden administration official said on Monday (26 April).

"This weekend, we had several high-level calls with Indian officials about the best ways that we can support India’s fight against this current surge of COVID-19. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan spoke with Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval yesterday. Secretary Blinken spoke with his Indian counterpart late last week. And we’ve now shared the range of support that we are prepared to immediately start deploying," the official added.

Detailing the US assistance to India, the official said that the US was exploring options to provide and related supplies as these are the resources that India had specifically requested and were very high on New Delhi's priority list.

On the Oxygen supply front, the Department of Defence (DoD) and US Agency for International Development are pursuing options to provide oxygen generation systems, the official said, adding that the oxygen shipments may also be rerouted to India.

"We also have the Department of Defence working on oxygen generation systems, including larger-scale as well as smaller-scale units," the official said. He added that the DoD is also exploring the provision of field oxygen generation systems, which the US has used in our its field hospitals to provide oxygen for 50 to 100 beds.

The DoD is also exploring options to provide oxygen concentrations and ventilators, the official added.

"We’re in technical discussions with India to ensure that the equipment we supply will connect to devices in India. And we’re also going to be providing training associated with all of these requests as needed," the official said.

The US government is also preparing to help with transportation of these and other supplies to India, the official added.

The US is also working on providing assistance to India on therapeutics, personal protective equipment, and tests.

According to the official, the US has identified some commercial suppliers of remdesivir that are immediately available to help relieve the suffering of COVID-19 patients in India.

It has also identified rapid diagnostic testing supplies, as well as personal protective equipment, that will be available to be transferred to India immediately.

The United States will also deploy a "strike team" to India which will include public health experts to work in close collaboration with India’s Health Ministry and experts.

The strike team will work with India’s experts in a number of areas, including laboratory services; surveillance and epidemiology; bioinformatics for sequencing and modeling of the disease; infection, prevention, and control; vaccines rollout; and risk communication.

USAID will also work in the public health arena with CDC to support and fast track the mobilisation of emergency resources available through the Global Fund, the official said.

Besides, the US is also looking to share around 60 million doses of AstraZenec vaccines with other countries including India as they become available over the next two months, after FDA completes its ongoing review of all doses made in the coming weeks.

"We expect that there are approximately 10 million doses that could be released if and when FDA gets — gives its concurrence, which could happen in the coming weeks. Further, there’s an estimated additional 50 million doses that are in various stages of production, and these could be completed in stages across May and June," the official said.