US Says Will "Work Closely With India On Essential Supplies" Amid Covid Surge

"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," added Jalina Porter.

US State Department spokeswoman, Jalina Porter on Friday (local time) during a press briefing reaffirmed that US will work closely with India to facilitate movement of essential supplies during COVID-19 surge. Informing about the update on India's request regarding US position on the embargo on lifting of raw materials for the vaccine, she 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," added Porter. Earlier on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar regarding the lethal second COVID-19 wave in India.