US to deploy additional support to India amid COVID-19 spike
The United States will rapidly deploy additional support to India as the latter faces a spike in COVID-19 infections, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
The US government is facing intense pressure to ship dozes of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine and other vaccines along with medical supplies.
India is facing a second wave of India, reporting the highest number of infections for any country.
Our hearts go out to Indian people: Blinken
Blinken said, "Our hearts go out to Indian people in the midst of the horrific COVID outbreak. We're working closely with our partners in the Indian government, and we'll rapidly deploy additional support to the people of India and India's healthcare heroes."
Congressperson Raja Krishnamoorthi said the US is sitting on nearly 40 million AstraZeneca vaccine doses which it is not using.
Can't let vaccines sit in a warehouse: Krishnamoorthi
In a tweet, Krishnamoorthi said "we can't let vaccines sit in a warehouse," requesting the government to immediately release the vaccine doses. Congressman Ro Khanna said the issue should be taken up as the US-India Caucus.
US plans to quickly deploy additional support: White House
A White House spokesperson said the US is concerned about India and plans to quickly deploy additional support.
The spokesperson said, "We are in active conversations at high levels and plan to quickly deploy additional support to the Government of India and Indian health care workers as they battle this latest severe outbreak. We will have more to share very soon."
India's COVID-19 situation a global concern: US State Department
The US continues to work closely with India to facilitate the movement of essential supplies and also address the bottlenecks of the supply chains, US State Department Deputy Spokesperson Jalina Porter said. She said India's COVID-19 outbreak is a global concern.
India reports record infections, deaths
According to the Union Health Ministry, till Sunday morning, India reported a total of 1,69,60,172 COVID-19 cases. The death toll has reached 1,92,311.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, 1,40,85,110 patients have recovered, while 26,82,751 cases involve active infections.
In the past 24 hours alone, India recorded 3,49,691 new infections and 2,767 fresh fatalities; marking the biggest single-day spike in infections and mortalities.
