US to Quicken Vaccine Raw Materials, anti-COVID Supplies to India

NEW YORK:

US to Supply Vaccine Raw Material to India: In a break from the America First policy, President Joe Biden's administration is "working round the clock" to immediately send India raw material needed for making Covishield and other products needed in the fight against the COVID-19 surge overtaking the nation, according to National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.

Recalling the assistance sent by India to the US in the early phase of the pandemic last year, he told India's National Security Adviser Ajit Doval in a phone call on Sunday that "the United States is working around the clock to deploy available resources and supplies", Sullivan's Spokesperson Emily Horne said.

Sullivan told Doval that Washington "also is pursuing options to provide oxygen generation and related supplies on an urgent basis," she said in a readout of their conversation.

The US will also send India anti-COVID supplies like test kits, ventilators, medications and personal protective equipment used by frontline workers.

The National Defence Production Act invoked by former President Donald Trump banned the export of vaccine raw materials and some other COVID-related products and have continued under Biden.

The decision to lift the embargo for India on the export of vaccine raw materials comes after nearly two weeks of requests from Adar Poonawalla, the CEO of vaccine-maker Serum Institute of India, and others in India.

But as recently as Friday various US government spokespersons would not say if the Biden administration would lift the embargo.

State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said on Thursday that the "first obligation" was to the American people and added, "It's in the interests of the rest of the world to see Americans vaccinated".

But as calls grew for helping India, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken gave a hint on Saturday that India may get the material to fight the pandemic surge.

He tweeted, "We are working closely with our partners in the Indian government, and we will rapidly deploy additional support to the people of India and India's health care heroes."

Horne said in the readout, "Just as India sent assistance to the United States as our hospitals were strained early in the pandemic, the United States is determined to help India in its time of need."

After some physicians had said that hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) could be a treatment for COVID-19, last April Trump had personally asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to lift his ban on its exports and supply the drug to the US.

India sent about 50 million doses of HCQ to the US and thanking Modi, Trump said, "We will remember it."

Now the next President's administration is remembering it, even though the emergency use authorization for HCQ's in hospital settings in the US was withdrawn and a huge cache of it sits unused while Modi's decision was criticized in India.

India has been sharing its vaccine production with countries around the world, sending nearly 65 million doses to 86 countries.

Horne said, "Sullivan affirmed America's solidarity with India, the two countries with the greatest number of COVID-19 cases in the world" and they both "resolved that India and the United States will continue to fight the global COVID-19 pandemic together."

The readout, listing what India will receive, said, "The United States has identified sources of specific raw material urgently required for Indian manufacture of the Covishield vaccine that will immediately be made available for India. To help treat COVID-19 patients and protect front-line health workers in India, the United States has identified supplies of therapeutics, rapid diagnostic test kits, ventilators, and personal protective equipment (PPE) that will immediately be made available for India." (IANS)

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