NEW DELHI: On the day that US President Joe Biden said that 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine would be given to other countries including India, sources in New Delhi said that the US is aware of India’s interests in procuring vaccines.
On relief material from the US reaching India, sources said that it is likely that it would reach India by Friday on military aircraft.
“It is being worked out whether the material will come directly from the US or Washington would source it from their bases,” they added.
Earlier, Biden said it was the US intention to send vaccines to India. “We are sending actual mechanical parts that are needed for the machinery they have to build a vaccine. I have also discussed with him (PM Modi) when we will be able to send actual vaccines to India which will be my intention to do,” he said. He also recalled his conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“I spoke at length with PM Modi, we are sending immediately a whole series of help that it (India) needs including providing for those Remsdevsisir and other drugs that are able to deal with the disease and help recovery,” he said.
While AstraZeneca has not been authorised in the US yet, it is believed that Washington has a stockpile of 60 million doses. “We believe the number to be around 10 million right now and in the coming months, more doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine will be manufactured,” sources said.
“I think we will be in a position to share vaccines as well as know-how with other countries who are in real need. That is the hope and expectations,” Biden said.
India declined UN offer of assistance: Spox
India has declined assistance offered by the UN saying it has a robust system to deal with logistics, a UN spokesperson said.
“We’ve been told at this point that it’s not needed because India has a reasonably robust system to deal with this,” Deputy spomesperson to UN Secretary General, Farhan Haq, said. Haq said no essential supplies shipments are due to reach India.