Getting people vaccinated only end-game to COVID-19 crisis in India: Dr Anthony Fauci

America’s top public health expert and White House Chief Medical Adviser Dr Anthony Fauci called for scaling up COVID-19 vaccine production in India stating that getting people vaccinated was the only long-term solution to the deadly second wave that had hit the country. 

Batting for ramping up vaccine production globally as well, Dr Fauci told ABC News, "The endgame of this all is going to be to get people vaccinated. India is the largest vaccine-producing country in the world. They've got to get their resources, not only from within, but also from without." 

“That's the reason why other countries need to chip in to be able to get either supplies to the Indians to make their own vaccines or to get vaccines donated. One of the ways to do that is to have the big companies that have the capability of making vaccines to really scale up in a great way to get literally hundreds of millions of doses to be able to get to them,” he said.

The 80-year-old immunologist also called the Oxygen crisis in India 'really tragic' suggesting that it immediately build makeshift field hospitals to tackle the shortage. “You've got to get that. You can't have people out in the street not having a hospital bed. The oxygen situation is something that was really critical. I mean, to have people not have oxygen is really tragic, what's going on over there,” he said.

Earlier Dr Anthony Fauci had recommended a nationwide lockdown for India stating that it could help avoid the pressure on hospital beds, Oxygen, and shortage of supplies.

"The solution immediately right now is, and I know India is already doing it, so I'm not telling you something that you are not already doing. A few days ago, I recommended and I believe at least parts of India are doing it, that you shut down the country in lockdown,” he said.

India reported 4,03,738 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday taking the total number of active Coronavirus cases in the country to 37,36,648. In a span of 24 hours, 3,86,444 recoveries and 4,092 were also recorded, as per the data released by the MoHFW. 

(With PTI Inputs)