Nations rush to assist as Covid cases soar in India

A partially deserted road is seen during lockdown imposed yesterday as a preventive measure against the spread of Covid-19 in Chennai yesterday.

The US will immediately provide raw materials for Covid-19 vaccines, medical equipment and protective gear to help India respond to a massive surge in Covid-19 infections, a White House spokeswoman said yesterday. “The US is working around the clock to deploy available resources and supplies,” National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne said in a statement. Horne said the materials would help India manufacture the Covishield vaccine. The US would also send therapeutics, rapid diagnostic test kits and ventilators. The US was also pursuing options to provide India with oxygen generation and related supplies. US officials are also considering sending India its unused Covid-19 vaccines doses from AstraZeneca, the top US infectious disease official Dr Anthony Fauci told ABC News yesterday. “That’s something that certainly is going to be actively considered,” Fauci said in an interview. AstraZeneca’s vaccine is not yet approved in the US, which has millions of doses, and top US health officials have said they have enough doses of approved versions by three other drugmakers to inoculate all Americans in coming weeks. The nation’s top business lobbying group has also pushed the administration to send AstraZeneca’s vials to countries with rising cases. The White House had no comment on the possibility of sending AstraZeneca vaccine to India. Senior US officials have expressed concern that new variants of the virus emerging in India could undermine progress made in the US. The outbreak also threatens the economic recovery of India, the sixth-largest economy in the world. Horne said the US would also send a team of experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and US Agency for International Development to work with India. Meanwhile  the office of French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday said it will send oxygen respiratory equipment to India in the coming days. Earlier yesterday, the European Commission activated its EU Civil Protection Mechanism and said it was seeking to send oxygen and medicine to India after receiving a request from Delhi.  Britain yesterday said it was sending life-saving medical equipment to India, including ventilators and oxygen concentrators. London will ship more than 600 pieces of equipment to New Delhi to support its fight against the virus, following a request from India and Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledging the UK would do “all it can” to help. “We stand side by side with India as a friend and partner during what is a deeply concerning time in the fight against Covid-19,” Johnson said in a statement. German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday said her government was preparing emergency aid for India. “To the people of India I want to express my sympathy on the terrible suffering that Covid-19 has again brought over your communities,” Merkel said in a message shared on Twitter by her spokesman Steffen Seibert. “The fight against the pandemic is our common fight. Germany stands in solidarity with India and is urgently preparing a mission of support.” Country shaken by coronavirus ‘storm’: Modi Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday urged all citizens to be vaccinated and exercise caution, saying the “storm” of infections had shaken India, as the country set a new global record of the most number of Covid-19 infections in a day. The number of cases in India surged by 349,691 in the past 24 hours, the fourth straight day of record peaks. Hospitals in Delhi and across the country are turning away patients after running out of medical oxygen and beds. “We were confident, our spirits were up after successfully tackling the first wave, but this storm has shaken the nation,” Modi said in a radio address. His government has faced criticism that it let its guard down earlier this year, allowed big religious and political gatherings to take place when India’s cases fell to below 10,000 a day and did not plan for boosted healthcare systems. Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal extended a lockdown in the capital that had been due to end on Monday for a week. Covid-19 is killing one person every four minutes in the city.