As India grapples with Covid surge, Singapore, UK, US, EU rush medical relief supplies

As India has been clearly brought down to its knees battling the second wave of Covid, several nations have come to its aid. There are those who jumped right in to play the rescue rangers, while others responded under international pressure. 

As the country battles acute shortage of oxygen, health infrastructure facilities and even vaccines, several countries including the U.S, the U.K, Singapore, Germany, and European Union have come to India's aid.

Singapore, the first to offer help

Shortly after External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar appealed for international assistance for India's Covid crisis, within a day four cryogenic oxygen tanks were airlifted by the Indian Air Force from Singapore. Thereby making it among the first to offer help to India.

Singapore's Embassy in New Delhi said in a statement, "We stand with India in its fight against Covid-19." Soon afterwards, UAE, European Union, Russia and Saudi Arabia pledged to support and said they were sending the supplies. 

Germany

Also committing support for India has been German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose spokesperson Steffen Seibert shared via Twitter, "To the people of India I want to express my sympathy on the terrible suffering that Covid-19 has again brought over your communities."

United States

Acknowledging the assistance provided by India in the early phase of the pandemic, President Biden tweeted on Sunday, "Just as India sent assistance to the United States as our hospitals were strained early in the pandemic, we are determined to help India in its time of need."

Vice President Kamala Harris, who has always been vocal about issues pertaining India, followed soon with the post, "The U.S is working closely with the Indian government to rapidly deploy additional support and supplies during an alarming COVID-19 outbreak. As we provide assistance, we pray for the people of India, including its courageous healthcare workers."

The press statement from the White House also said, "US has identified sources of specific raw material that India needs urgently to manufacture Covishield vaccine. The US Development Finance Corporation (DFC) will fund the expansion of BioE to increase vaccine production to 1 billion doses by the end of 2022."

Not a knee jerk reaction: US

The Biden administration came under severe criticism from all quarters, including some of the members and supporters of the Democratic Party, for not immediately tendering all possible help and not releasing Covid-19 vaccines to India.

Indian American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi urged the Biden administration to immediately release the vaccines and get them where they were most needed. "When people in India and elsewhere desperately need help, we can't let vaccines sit in a warehouse, we need to get them where they'll save lives," he said, further sharing, "We are currently sitting on close to 40 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in the US stockpile."

Rest of the world

The entire world, as per several reports, including Russia, Australia, France, China and Canada have all confirmed their support through official channels, social media posts and interviews. While President Emmanuel Macron of France said that their country is on standby and will provide whatever support required by India, the exact nature and quantification of the support by each of the above nations is not known yet.

UK rushes oxygen supplies

On Sunday, the UK announced that it was sending over 600 medical devices including oxygen concentrators and ventilators to India. Meanwhile, the President of European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, also said the current situation in India was alarming and said they were pooling resources and respond rapidly to the situation.

Pakistan and Afghanistan offer support

A day before most countries tweeted their support, on Saturday, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi took to Twitter to tender help to India. "As a gesture of solidarity with the people of India, in the wake of the current wave of Covid-19, Pakistan has officially offered relief and support to India, including ventilators, BiPAP, digital X ray machines, PPEs and other related items. We believe in the policy of humanity first," he tweeted.

Prime Minister Imran Khan did the same, while offering help, even wished India a speedy recovery and said we must fight this together. Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani also tweeted his support and solidarity for India's Covid crisis.