India is in a crisis owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. The number of Covid-19 cases are increasing, and hence there’s a scarcity of medical equipment, oxygen level, hospital beds, etc. in India.

Recently, the US President, Joe Biden has decided to send a team of public health experts, commonly known as the Strike Team”, to India. The health experts of the US shall work with and assist the health experts of India to help the Indians to recover from the Covid-19 situation.

Biden had already spoken to Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India, on Monday regarding this, as the pressure on Washington kept increasing. The US will also provide raw materials which are required for the making of covishield vaccines as well as other medical equipment including PPE kits, testing kits, etc. to India so that the Covid-19 patients get better treatment.

Soon after the conversation between the US President and the Indian Prime Minister, a senior official belonging to the administrative department reported that a range of support is already kept in readiness for India by the US and will be deployed as soon as possible.

This is much in contrast to what happened a few days ago – the US President, Joe Biden was clearly unwilling to extend any help and support to India during this COVID-19 pandemic.  When India requested for some help from the US in order to combat the crisis of the second wave of the pandemic, the US refused to help India and did not lift the ban on the export of raw materials for the manufacture of Covishield.  But, due to the exceeding pressure from the US Chamber of Commerce and the Indian-Americans lawmakers over the Biden administration, the US President has finally resolved to help India during this crisis by supplying AstraZeneca, various medical equipment, etc.

The Strike Team is made up of medical experts from US and shall work with the Indian health experts aiming to improve the medical condition in India. The Strike Team shall assist and help to improve the laboratory services and work in the fields of surveillance and epidemiology, bioinformatics in order to sequence and model the disease, prevent infection and control the rollout and risk of communicating.

As per the request of the government of India, the US will not only provide raw materials to produce AstraZeneca’s Covishield vaccine at the Serum Institute of India but also provide Oxygen generation systems. The US has also shown interest in providing assistance to India to combat this critical condition by supplying the therapeutics, personal protective equipment, and tests.  The US is a well-known commercial supplier of Remdesivir that may help improve the condition of the COVID-19 patients in India.

The Strike Team will also comprise of officers belonging to the CDC Epidemic Intelligence department, laboratory leads, leadership and service officers who shall assist the US officials to improve the condition.

It is expected that the condition of India will improve with the help of the US.