Washington:
A group of US lawmakers has introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives, urging the Biden administration to continue to ramp up efforts to assist India in its fight against COVID19.
Introduced by Congressman Brad Sherman and Steve Chabot – the two co-chairs of the Congressional India Caucus – the resolution urges the administration to facilitate private, in-kind medical supply donations to India and work to deliver additional and urgently-needed medical supplies, including oxygen generator plants and a cryogenic oxygen tanker and containers.
Standing with the people of India as they collectively work to stem the spread of COVID-19 throughout the country, the resolution recognises the efforts of the administration to deliver urgently needed medical supplies and vaccine raw materials to India.
In response to the crisis in India, the Biden administration took quick action to deliver urgently needed supplies to India, including oxygen support, oxygen concentrators, personal protective equipment (PPE), raw materials for vaccine, rapid diagnostic tests, and therapeutics, and is a testament to the historic record of United States-India health cooperation dating more than seven decades, it said.
The US’ private sector has worked to generously support relief efforts in India including by working to deliver 1,000 ventilators and 25,000 oxygen concentrators to health care facilities across India; the resolution said.
It said that many countries around the world have also sent medical assistance to India to help the country defeat this devastating wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now that the United States’ vaccine supply for the American people is secured, it is important for the US to continue to ramp up its efforts, working with the private sector and all possible partners, to expand vaccine manufacturing and distribution worldwide, it said.
Recognising the efforts of Indian-Americans and the US’ firms to support India’s health care system during this time of need; the resolution calls on the President and the Secretary of State to work with partners around the world to quell the virus everywhere it persists.
It recognises the importance of India in defeating this surge to the overall global effort to addressing the COVID-19 pandemic.
The bipartisan resolution acknowledged that in the spring of 2020, when the US was in the midst of a devastating spike in COVID-19 cases, India lifted its export ban on certain therapeutics in response to a request by the US government.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)