Covid-19: US to donate ventilators to India amid troubled times

At Trump’s solicitation, a month ago India permitted the supply of 50 million hydroxychloroquine tablets to treat COVID-19 patients in America, when the nation was most terribly hit by the pandemic.

In a friendly gesture, President Donald Trump on Saturday announced on Twitter that US would donate ventilators to India in the battle against COVID-19. “We stand with India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi during this pandemic,” he wrote.

“We are sending a lot of ventilators to India. I spoke to Prime Minister Modi. We have tremendous supply of ventilators,” Trump reported moments before boarding Marine One on his expedition to Camp David for official meetings. However, the exact amount of it was not disclosed.

Some time ago, Trump applauded India and Prime Minister Modi saying that India has been so extraordinary and said PM Modi has been an excellent companion of him, while alluding to his visit to New Delhi, Ahmedabad and Agra in February. During a press conference, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany stated that India has been an extraordinary associate to US for a long time. She added India would be among a few nations that would receive the ventilators.

Trump said the US and India are collaborating to build up a vaccine for COVID-19. “Together we will beat the invisible adversary! We remain with India and Prime Minister Modi during this pandemic,” Trump told journalists at the White House.

He also expressed a friendly union of United States and India and lauded Indian-American scientists and researchers who have been relentlessly working to develop a vaccine for COVID-19. He said there is a probable chance of vaccine’s availability by the end of 2020. And also announced an appointment of the former head of vaccines at GlaxoSmithKline to helm the development process.