First consignments of medical supplies from US reaches India

With a large number of countries stepping in to send medical aid to India, the first consignments of medical supplies from the US reached India on Friday morning.

New Delhi: The first consignments of medical supplies from the US reached India on Friday morning.

Indian missions abroad were told to focus on procurement of oxygen-related equipment and critical medicines such as Remdesivir, sources said.

They said India has sought from the US medical supplies, including ready-to-use vaccine doses, as well as raw materials for production of COVID-19 vaccines, they said.

Medical supplies from US reaches India

With a large number of countries stepping in to send medical aid to India, the sources said no appeal for international assistance was made and that the supplies are largely being routed through the Indian Red Cross Society.

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The sources said India has been looking at oxygen-related items and critical medicines from abroad and Indian missions in leading countries have already been told to focus their efforts on their procurement.

They said India was looking at specific products to buy and the list has been shared with the Indian embassies for their procurement.

Some of it will come as grants to the Indian Red Cross Society, some of it is coming as individual procurement by public sectors undertakings, private sector and state governments, they said.

They said the main focus of overseas procurement has been oxygen generating plants, oxygen concentrators and small and big oxygen cylinders as India is facing difficulty in transporting medical oxygen from various plants to the hospitals.

"We were looking at oxygen itself but it is not easy. To bring oxygen, you need cryogenic tankers which are very limited in the world," said a source.

The other broad area of focus is procurement of critical medicines like Remdesivir, Tocilizumab and Favipiravir from the US and several other countries.

When asked about reported comments by US officials at a recent background briefing that India has not made any request for ready-to-use vaccines from the US, the sources said the requirement of vaccine by India was taken up with the Biden administration.

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"The US is aware of our interest in procurement of vaccines, AstraZeneca or otherwise," said a source.

The sources said the US could be having around 10 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine at present and it is expected to produce 50 million doses by June.

They said there is no response to China's offer of support to India in view of the COVID-19 situation, and that there has been no restrictions on commercial procurements from that country.

India has been reeling under a devastating wave of coronavirus infections and hospitals across the country are facing acute shortage of beds, medical oxygen and other supplies due to rising COVID-19 cases.

With input from agencies