Kamala Harris says India's COVID-19 situation is heartbreaking, assures of more aid

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New Delhi: The Vice President of the United States of America Kamala Harris on Friday said the COVID-19 surge and the resultant deaths in India is "nothing short of heartbreaking" and that India's welfare is critically important to US.

The US administration under President Joe Biden has pledged help to India in its hour of need, Harris said that the entire government machinery has been working to help the country in this hour of crisis.

"At the beginning of the pandemic, when our hospital beds were stretched, India sent assistance. And today, we are determined to help India in its hour of need," Harris said in her remarks at the State Department's Diaspora outreach event on US COVID Relief for India, PTI reported.

"We do this as friends of India, as members of the Asian Quad, and as part of the global community. I believe that if we continue to work together 'across nations and sectors' we will all get through this," she said.

As per the USAID, 20,000 courses of remdesivir (125,000 vials); nearly 1,500 oxygen cylinders and one million rapid diagnostic tests to quickly identify COVID-19 cases and prevent community spread has been rpovided as emergency medical aid to India.

The supllies also includ nearly 550 mobile oxygen concentrators that obtain oxygen from ambient air. These units have a lifespan of more than five years and can serve multiple patients at once, depending on their oxygen needs. The US has also sent nearly 2.5 million N95 masks to protect health care professionals and other frontline workers.

A large-scale deployable Oxygen Concentration System that can provide oxygen to treat 20 or more patients at a time and 210 pulse oximeters to measure oxygen levels in a patient's blood to determine whether a higher level of care is needed has also been sent to India, USAID said.

Meanwhile, India on Friday reported more than 4.14 lakh daily new coronavirus cases and hospitals are reeling under a shortage of medical oxygen and beds.