US-India Strategic Partnership Forum unveils 3 immediate steps to assist COVID-19 crisis

Amid the ongoing COVID-19 crisis in India due to the tolling second wave, the United States-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) will take three immediate actions to help and address the surge in daily coronavirus cases. As of May 5, India has registered a record of 3,780 COVID-19 casualties pushing the total death toll to 2,26,188 with the total cases spiking to 20,665,148 as the nation logged in 382,315 fresh infections of coronavirus in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday.

What are the three steps taken by US-India Strategic Partnership Forum?

• Across India, at least 1,000 Puritan Bennet ventilators will be sourced, shipped and delivered to healthcare facilities overwhelmed by the drastic surge of COVID-19 patients. These ventilators are procured by the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation and will arrive in India on May 5. Meanwhile, the remaining ventilators will arrive in the nation by June 3. According to an official news release, Medtronic will manufacture the ventilators while also handling the end-to-end shipping, installation along with organising virtual training.
• 25,000 oxygen concentrators will be delivered in India by May with FedX providing transportation support.
• The US-India Strategic Partnership Forum will also create the Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) India Action Group to provide ideas and practical information to CHROs to assist their people in India.

The Global Task Force on Pandemic Response 

Meanwhile, a newly-minted global task force of Chief Executives of top 40 US companies on May 5 additionally announced an immediate, massive COVID-19 aid to help India in its COVID-19 fight. The Global Task Force on Pandemic Response is established as a public-private partnership organised by the US Chamber of Commerce and supported by Business Roundtable. and it is working in close collaboration with US and Indian government officials to not only share information but also coordinate to tackle the COVID-19 surge.

The steering members of the Global Task Force on Pandemic Response include Julie Sweet, CEO, Accenture; Andy Jassy, CEO, Amazon; Tim Cook, CEO, Apple; Brian Moynihan, Chairman of the Board and CEO, Bank of America; Raj Subramaniam, president FedEx; and Arvind Krishna, Chairman and CEO, IBM. Other members are Gail McGovern, president and CEO, American Red Cross; Mike Parra, CEO Americas, DHL Express. They are also working with USISPF, US-India Business Council (USIBC) and Business Roundtable.

Image credits: PTI/AP