US President Donald Trump on Saturday (April 4) said that he has appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to release US order of hydroxychloroquine stockpile that can be used to treat COVID-19 coronavirus patients. 


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"After call today with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India is giving serious consideration to releasing the hold it put on a US order for hydroxychloroquine," President Trump told the media.


The US president also said that he too will take a tablet of hydroxychloroquine after talking to his doctors. "I may take it too, will have to talk to my doctors," he added.


"India makes a lot of it. They need a lot too for their billion-plus people. The hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug will be released through the Strategic National Stockpile for treatment. I said I would appreciate if they would release the amounts that we ordered of hydroxychloroquine," noted President Trump.


Notably, the Indian government has banned the export of hydroxychloroquine and its formulations since the outbreak of coronavirus in India. 


President Trump on Saturday (April 4) said that US the could see a lot of deaths in the next couple of weeks due to the deadly virus. Talking about the spread of the coronavirus in the US in the United States in the next two weeks, President Trump said, "There will be a lot of death." 


President Trump, however, asserted that the number of deaths can remain low if certain mitigation steps are taken. "This will be probably the toughest week between this week and next week, and there will be a lot of death, unfortunately, but a lot less death than if this wasn`t done but there will be death," Trump said during Coronavirus Taskforce Briefing. Notably, the US has recorded over 3 lakh coronavirus cases and the current death toll in the country due to deadly virus stands at 8,291.


On Saturday, PM Modi and President Trump agreed to deploy full strength of the partnership between the two countries to fight the deadly coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. The two leaders held an extensive telephonic conversation and discussed the crisis that the world is currently facing.


Taking micro-blogging site, Twitter, PM Modi said, "Had an extensive telephone conversation with President Donald Trump. We had a good discussion, and agreed to deploy the full strength of the India-US partnership to fight COVID-19."