Washington: United States is “very closely” monitoring the course of the COVID-19 outbreak in India, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price has stated. The assertion from Price comes after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday and mentioned US-India cooperation on local weather change, COVID-19, and different international challenges and pledged to stay in shut contact on these and different points of mutual concern.
“There are protocols in place, requiring testing for international travel. What is true is that we are tracking the course of the COVID outbreak in India very closely as I mentioned before, Secretary Blinken and Foreign Minister Jaishankar did discuss it yesterday,” Price stated in a press release on Tuesday.
“We are committed to doing what we can both at the present. And going forward, to see to it that this virus is brought under control and I spoke again of our engagement with the who are funding to COVAX, the Quad association that of course implicates. What we`re seeing in India,” he added.
Price additional stated that Secretary Blinken constantly makes the purpose that so long as the virus is out of management and is uncontained anyplace around the globe, it continues to current a threat to the American individuals.
On the COVID-19 vaccine, Price stated, “Our priority is ensuring the distribution of a safe and effective vaccine to millions of Americans to all Americans who are able to take advantage of it. But we also know that we need to continue to demonstrate that leadership.”
“When it comes to countries beyond our borders and that`s precisely what we`ve done, as I mentioned before, we`ve re-engaged. The who we`ve committed USD 2 billion to Kovacs another USD 2 billion over time, we`ve spoken to our partnership with Canada and Mexico,” he added.
Price additional said that it’s not solely in US` curiosity to make sure that the American persons are vaccinated, the “only other point I would make is that the rest of the world also has an interest in seeing to it that the American people are vaccinated and that the virus is brought under control”.
“US has more deaths than any other country around the world. More than 550,000 at this point 10s of millions of cases. So, again, as long as the virus is uncontrolled anywhere, it is a threat to people everywhere. That is true in the United States. That is true in countries around the world. And it`s precisely why we are taking this, this approach,” he stated.
US` Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has already suggested its residents to keep away from travelling to India amid an enormous surge in COVID-19 circumstances in the nation.
In a press release, the CDC on Monday stated, “Because of the current situation in India even fully vaccinated travellers may be at risk for getting and spreading COVID-19 variants and should avoid all travel to India. If you must travel to India, get fully vaccinated before travel. All travellers should wear a mask, stay 6 feet from others, avoid crowds, and wash their hands.”
The COVID-19 state of affairs in India has been deteriorating amid the second wave of coronavirus infections. For the previous 4 days, the nation has been reporting in extra of two lakh coronavirus infections and over 1,000 associated deaths each day.
