President Joe Biden's administration is "workinground the clock" to immediately send India raw material needed for makingCovishield and other products needed in the fight against the COVID-19 surgeovertaking the nation, according to National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.
Recalling the assistance sent by India to the US in theearly phase of the pandemic last year, he told India's National SecurityAdviser Ajit Doval in a phone call on Sunday that "the United States isworking around the clock to deploy available resources and supplie",Sullivan's Spokesperson Emily Horne said.
Sullivan told Doval that Washington "also ispursuing options to provide oxygen generation and related supplies on an urgentbasis," she said in readout of their conversation.
The US will also send India anti-COVID supplies like testkits, ventilators, medications and personal protective equipment used byfrontline workers.
The National Defence Production Act invoked by formerPresident Donald Trump banned the export of vaccine raw materials and someother COVID-related products and have continued under Biden.
The decision to lift the embargo for India on the exportof vaccine raw materials comes after nearly two weeks of requests from AdarPoonawalla, the CEO of vaccine-maker Serum Institute of India, and others inIndia.
But as recently as Friday various US governmentspokespersons would not say if the Biden administration would lift the embargo.
State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said on Thursdaythat the "first obligation" was to the American people and added,"It's in the interests of the rest of the world to see Americansvaccinated".
But as calls grew for helping India, Secretary of StateAnthony Blinken gave a hint on Saturday that India may get the material tofight the pandemic surge.
He tweeted, "We are working closely with ourpartners in the Indian government, and we will rapidly deploy additionalsupport to the people of India and India's health care heroes."
Horne said in the readout, "Just as India sentassistance to the United States as our hospitals were strained early in the pandemic;the United States is determined to help India in its time of need."
After some physicians had said that hydroxychloroquine(HCQ) could be a treatment for COVID-19, last April Trump had personally askedPrime Minister Narendra Modi to lift his ban on its exports and supply the drugto the US.
India sent about 50 million doses of HCQ to the US andthanking Modi, Trump said, "We will remember it."
Now the next president's administration is rememberingit, even though the emergency use authorisation for HCQ's in hospital settingsin the US was withdrawn and a huge cache of it sits unused while Modi'sdecision was crticised in India.
India has been sharing its vaccine production withcountries around the world, sending nearly 65 million doses to 86 countries.
Horne said, "Sullivan affirmed America's solidaritywith India, the two countries with the greatest number of COVID-19 cases in theworld" and they both "resolved that India and the United States willcontinue to fight the global COVID-19 pandemic together."
The readout, listing what India will receive, said,"The United States has identified sources of specific raw materialurgently required for Indian manufacture of the Covishield vaccine that willimmediately be made available for India. To help treat COVID-19 patients andprotect front-line health workers in India, the United States has identifiedsupplies of therapeutics, rapid diagnostic test kits, ventilators, and personalprotective equipment (PPE) that will immediately be made available forIndia."
The US is also deploying an expert team of public healthadvisors from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and USAID to work with theembassy in Delhi, India's Health Ministry, and India's Epidemic IntelligenceService, the readout said.