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Updated April 24th, 2021 at 18:47 IST

COVID: US says 'working closely' with India to facilitate movement of essential supplies

US State Department spokesperson Jalina Porter reiterated Washington’s support for India as the nation battles the crippling second wave of COVID-19 pandemic. 

Reported by: Aanchal Nigam
US
Image credits: AP/PTI/Pixabay | Image:self
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US State Department spokesperson Jalina Porter on April 23 reiterated Washington’s support for India as the nation battles the crippling second wave of COVID-19 pandemic. During a press briefing, the United States official said that the US will ‘work closely’ with India to facilitate the movement of essential supplies during the challenging times and even provided an update on India’s request regarding America’s position of the lifting of raw materials for the COVID-19 vaccine.

Porter said, “We have continued to work closely with India to facilitate the movement of essential supplies and also address the bottlenecks of their supply chains. But we'll also continue to collaborate with our partners in India to battle this at the highest level."

"We don't have any specific update to raw materials, but we'll just reiterate that we understand that the COVID situation in India remains a global concern," she added.

Porter’s remarks came after on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar regarding the lethal second wave of the novel coronavirus. Addressing the same, Porter said, “We know Secretary Blinken spoke to his counterpart on Tuesday, and we remain deeply engaged with India at all levels as we work to combat this crisis of the pandemic together.”

COVID-19 in India

At present, the total cases in India have mounted to 1.66 crores with active cases being 25.52 lakh. To date, India has recorded at least 1.89 lakh with 1.38 crore recoveries. Meanwhile, the total number of people who have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine is 13.83 crores. On Saturday, Delhi High Court also asked the Centre about the preparedness to deal with the expected COVID-19 second wave peak amid the oxygen crisis and shortage of drugs and hospital beds in several states. The Delhi HC bench termed the massive rise of COVID-19 cases as a ‘tsunami’.

Meanwhile, Bhutan’s Foreign Affairs Minister Tandi Dorji offered “deepest prayers” and pledged “complete solidarity” with the Indian government. As per news agency ANI, he also noted that India is currently facing the “most difficult” phase of the pandemic and prayed for a speedy recovery. Dorji’s remarks came on April 24 when India recorded 3.46 lakh new COVID-19 cases which is the world’s highest one-day surge in coronavirus infections for the third consecutive day.

Image credits: AP/PTI/Pixabay

 

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Published April 24th, 2021 at 18:47 IST

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