Joe Biden to send aid to India, on its knees by virus devastation

NEW DELHI.– By increasing India’s infections and deaths skyrocket, oxygen supply problems continue in what the government has called “a coronavirus storm”, The United States, Pakistan, Great Britain and the European Union (EU) today announced aid delivery in an attempt to mitigate the dramatic consequences of Covid-19 in the second country with the world’s largest population.

“We were confident our morale was good after successfully tackling the first wave, but this storm shook the nation,” the prime minister said. Narendra Modi in a speech to the nation.

The number of cases increased by 349,691 in the past 24 hours, the fourth consecutive day of record highs. Hospitals in and around Delhi country refuses patients after lacking medical oxygen and without beds.

Modi’s government criticized for letting its guard down earlier this year, when large religious and political gatherings were allowed to take place, the number of cases falling below 10,000 per day.

Hospitals and doctors have issued urgent notices saying they cannot cope with the flood of patients.

Outside a Sikh temple in Delhi city of Ghaziabad, the street looked like a hospital emergency room, filled with cars carrying Covid-19 patients trying to breathe connected to fuel tanks. portable oxygen.

Elsewhere, families were deploying stretchers and oxygen cylinders outside hospitals while desperately begging authorities to receive patients.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal extended a lockdown in the capital for a week that was to end on Monday. Covid-19 kills one person every four minutes in the city.

Epidemiologists and virologists claim that more infectious variants of the virus, including an Indian known as B.1.6.1.7, has fueled the fierce increase in cases.

Doctors at the Indian Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi found that one patient infected up to nine in ten contacts, up from four last year.

India, a country of 1.3 billion people, recorded a total of 16.9 million infections and 192,311 deaths, after 2,767 others have died in the past few hours, according to data from the Department of Health.

The dramatic situation in the country today has led several countries to offer their collaboration to mitigate the impact of an uncontrolled epidemiological scenario.

The United States announced aid to India through President Joe Biden and his Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.

“Just as India sent aid to America when our hospitals were overcrowded at the start of the pandemic, we are now determined to help India when needed,” Biden wrote on Twittter.

“We are working closely with our Indian government counterparts and will rapidly deploy further assistance to the Indian people and their health heroes,” Blinken said on Twitter.

As, Britain announced yesterday that it will send emergency medical supplies, such as ventilators and oxygen concentrators. India.

“Vital medical equipment, including hundreds of oxygen concentrators and ventilators, are now traveling from the UK to India,” the UK Prime Minister said, Boris Johnson, who expressed support for the former British colony.

London will send more than 600 units of medical supplies to fight the virus at India’s request.

Britain will do “everything possible to support the international community in the global fight against the pandemic”Johnson said, the channel reported BBC.

The first shipment, which will be followed by others throughout the week, is expected to arrive in New Delhi early tomorrow morning, according to the British Foreign Office. A total of nine air supply containers will be shipped.

The German Chancellor, Angela MerkelHe reported yesterday that his government was preparing to send emergency aid to India. “I want to express to the Indian people my condolences for the terrible suffering that Covid-19 has again caused in their communities,” said Merkel. “The fight against the pandemic is our common fight. Germany stands in solidarity with India and is urgently preparing a support mission, ”he added.

For her part, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der LeyenHe also announced that the European Union (EU) was preparing to provide “assistance” to India. “The EU is deploying its resources to respond quickly to India’s request for assistance through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism,” Von der Leyen tweeted.

“Our Emergency Response Coordination Center (ERCC) already brings together member states, which are ready to provide urgently needed oxygen and medicines,” he said.

Pakistan, India’s historic adversary and also a nuclear power, has offered to send medical supplies “in solidarity with the Indian people.”.

“Pakistan has offered assistance to India, including ventilators, oxygen supply kits, digital x-ray machines, personal protective equipment and related items,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The text urges the authorities of the two countries to develop modalities for the rapid delivery of the items and to explore possible ways of continuing cooperation to alleviate the challenges posed by the pandemic.

The offer came a day after Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, in a tweet, prayed for “the speedy recovery of Indians affected by the virus.”

AFP, DPA and Reuters agencies

THE NATION