Philadelphia gets donation of 1.8 mn N95 masks from India amid COVID-19 crisis

In an attempt to strengthen Indo-US partnership in the health sector, India donated 1.8 million N95 masks to Philadelphia in the United States. This initiative was taken after the Mayor of Philadelphia, Jim Kenney, urged India for the supply of masks. India's Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, in a Tweet on October 9 said, “Philadelphia receives 1.8 million N95 masks from India to aid their fight against COVID-19”. 

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Coronavirus in the USA 

The COVID-19 pandemic which saw its first outbreak in a wet market in Wuhan, China, last year has now spread all across the world. The virus, named COVID-19 by the World Health Organisation, has infected 37,177,422 people worldwide with the global death toll reaching at 1,073,717. As per the John Hopkins coronavirus resource centre, the United States has reported a total of 7,895,738 virus cases and has a death toll of 218,685.

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Earlier, talking about the Indo-US partnership to combat the deadly virus, during a virtual interaction with the eminent members of the Indian-American community from the Mid-Western parts of the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu said, "During the pandemic, India and the United States have been collaborating closely. Our network of scientific institutions, in India and the United States, are in touch with each other, on a real-time basis". He added, “Our pharmaceutical companies are working closely together, for co-development of a vaccine. There are at least three, such collaborations. Gilead has entered into an agreement, with seven Indian pharmaceutical companies, to manufacture and distribute Remdesivir, which has been authorised for treating COVID-19". 

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(Image Credits: Twitter/@SandhuTaranjitS)