The US authorities is making all of the efforts to assist India on this hour of disaster, a senior State Department official has stated. In the final one week, six air shipments of significant help have landed in India, which is battling the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, Senior Advisor Ervin Massinga from the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs stated on Friday.
These flights included well being provides comparable to oxygen concentrators, N95 masks, fast diagnostic exams and medicines. US help is predicted to be about USD 100 million, he stated. “The total US authorities from President Biden to our group on the Embassy and consulates on the bottom is doing all the pieces we will to assist India,” Massinga said during an event called ‘Bolstering US COVID Relief Efforts in India: Perspectives from the Diaspora’.
“We are bringing to bear the strength, innovation, and unique capabilities of the American people to assist those suffering in India. And we recognise that the pandemic will not be over for anyone until it is over for everyone, he said. Massinga referred to the recent remarks of US President Joe Biden when he told Prime Minister Narendra Modi that his government will do everything possible to help India at this time.
Biden’s discussion with Modi last week marks their fourth conversation in the administration’s first 100 days. Secretary of State Tony Blinken and other senior Department officials have also been regularly engaged with their Indian counterparts to address the most recent coronavirus wave, Massinga said.
“In my 26 years with the Department of State, I have never seen such an outpouring of personal and institutional generosity as we have experienced from the Americans of all backgrounds in the last month. The level of focus and dedication from private sector, civil society and community-based organisations, including contributions from Indian-Americans, has contributed to ensuring much needed supplies and resources get to those most in need, he said.
USAID Deputy Assistant Administrator for Asia Anjali Kaur said the whole-of-US government response has been immediate, targeted to India’s evolving needs and informed by nonstop consultations with their Indian counterparts and a multitude of other stakeholders.
Kaur said the US has mobilised its partners in India to immediately expand existing programs to meet urgent needs. “For instance, as hospitals across the country ran out of oxygen and related supplies, within days of receiving a request from the Government of India, the USAID quickly mobilised funding to purchase 1,000 oxygen concentrators. These life-saving units, with a lifespan of more than five years, will provide oxygen to hundreds of primary health care facilities, she said.
“The USAID is also supporting the Government of India’s efforts to establish 150 Pressure Swing Adsorption oxygen generating plants, which will allow 150 healthcare facilities to generate their own oxygen, rather than rely on oxygen deliveries, she added The USAID, she said, has received an overwhelming response from both US and Indian companies, as well as the Indian diaspora. Even individual states, such as California, have responded by partnering with USAID to facilitate a donation of life-saving oxygen supplies, Kaur said.
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