Two-hundred mobile ventilators that are estimated to cost around Rs 1 million will be airlifted by the US to help India combat the deadly coronavirus, Hindustan Times reported, citing sources. A government official told HT that the consignment would arrive by the end of May or latest by early June.
PM Narendra Modi on Saturday, 16 May, responded to the US President’s offer to donate ventilators to India, thanking him and saying that it was important for nations to work together at such a time.
US President Donald Trump on Friday had said that the United States of America would be donating ventilators to India to help fight the COVID-19 crisis.
"We are sending a lot of ventilators to India, I spoke to Prime Minister Modi. We are sending quite a few ventilators to India. We have a tremendous supply of ventilators,” Trump announced, while speaking to reporters. He also took to Twitter to reiterate his offer.
The US President further added that the two countries are also coordinating on developing a vaccine for COVID-19. “India has been so great; your PM has been a very good friend of mine. We are working with India too, we have a tremendous Indian population in the US and many of the people you are talking about are working on the vaccine too, great scientists and researchers,” said President Trump.
While addressing the media, Donald Trump said he is hopeful a COVID-19 vaccine would be available by the end of the year, and announced he was appointing a former pharmaceutical executive to spearhead the effort, under the project titled ‘Operation Warp Speed’, reported NDTV.
Over 1.4 million cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in the US so far. Meanwhile, India has recorded over 85,900 coronavirus cases.
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