The U.S. is considering sending assistance to India as the COVID-19 crisis hits dangerous new levels in the country.
The badly needed help could come in the form of oxygen supplies, COVID tests, protective equipment and other essential items.
"Just as India sent assistance 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," National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne said in a statement on Sunday.
In recent weeks, India has seen an alarming increase in new coronavirus infections. According to data collected by Johns Hopkins, India set another global record for daily cases over the weekend, taking the country's total approaching 17 million.
The announcement follows a call between U.S. President Joe Biden's National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and India's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval Sunday. According to a readout of the call, Sullivan "affirmed America's solidarity with India, the two countries with the greatest number of COVID-19 cases in the world."
The U.S.' response comes after the U.K., France and Germany pledged aid to India over the weekend.
On Sunday, Biden wrote on Twitter that his administration was "determined to help India in its time of need."
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. https://t.co/SzWRj0eP3y - President Biden (@POTUS) April 25, 2021
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Biden administration's top medical advisor on the pandemic, told ABC's "This Week" earlier on Sunday that several measures to assist India were being considered.
The situation is most visible in overcrowded graveyards and crematoriums. The situation is similarly bleak in overcrowded hospitals, where desperate patients are dying in line, even on the streets outside, waiting to see doctors.
The White House says it has identified raw material sources urgently required for India's production of the Covishield vaccine and will make them available. The U.S. also plans to fund an expansion of manufacturing capacity for BioE, an Indian vaccine maker, so that it can scale up and produce at least 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of 2022.
