US rushing drugs, machinery to India to fight Covid-19 surge: Biden

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Washington: The US is rushing a whole series of help, including life-saving drugs and machinery, that India needs to combat the massive surge in COVID-19 cases, President Joe Biden has said, as he again recalled New Delhi’s assistance to America when it was in a “bind” due to the pandemic.

Biden spoke at length with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday and conveyed solidarity with India in its fight against the viral disease.

“We are sending immediately a whole series of help that he needs, including providing for those Remdesivir and other drugs that are able to deal with this,” Biden told reporters at a White House news conference on Tuesday.

“We are sending the actual mechanical parts that are needed for the machinery they have to build a vaccine, and that is being done as well,” he said.

Talks on vaccine dispatch

The president said he had discussed with Prime Minister Modi when the US would be able to send actual vaccines to India.

The Biden administration has come under criticism from several quarters, including from members and supporters of the Democratic Party, for not releasing surplus COVID-19 vaccines to India when the country is experiencing its worst-ever public health crisis.

“The problem is right now, we have to make sure we have other vaccines like Novavax and others coming on probably, and I think we will be in a position to be able to share vaccines as well as know-how with other countries who are in real need,” Biden said.

“I might add when we were in a bind in the very beginning, India helped us,” Biden said, referring to India, the largest producer of hydroxychloroquine, lifting the ban on the export of the medicine to the US after then President Donald Trump spoke to Modi on phone last year.

On Sunday Biden had tweeted that “Just as India sent assistance to the United States as our hospitals were strained early in the pandemic, we are determined to help India in its time of need.”