Defense Department to Impart Support to India for Covid-19 Response

The Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin on Sunday announced that it would extend its support to India amid the menacing rise of Covid-19 cases. It comes a day after US President Joe Biden succumbed towards focusing on the domestic supply foremost. Keeping in purview the Quad Nation ties, the US Administration has come up with open arms to help India at the time of crisis.

 “I have directed the Department to use every resource at our disposal, within our authority, to support U.S. interagency efforts to rapidly provide India’s frontline healthcare workers with the materials they need. We are currently assessing the equipment we can both procure and draw from our own inventory in the coming days and weeks,” Austin said in a statement.

Austin also announced that in the next few days, the Department would provide transportation and logistics assistance to deliver needed supplies to India. The constant lack of oxygen supply is worrying states across India, and it has plagued a request to the United States to procure more supplies at the need of the hour. Furthermore, the US agencies and the Department along with the industries be continuously monitoring and assisting the Indian partners to help their allies to overcome the crippling outbreak.

India on Sunday reported 349,691 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total to more than 16.9 million cases in the country, according to a portal tally of figures from the Indian Ministry of Health. Sunday’s tally takes India representing the highest number of cases in a single day anywhere in the world. The heightened fear across the Indian counterparts is gradually being addressed by the strategic nations, and they are willingly extending their support to India, especially the United States and Saudi Arabia.