The rising death rate, disturbing visuals, sad pictures and tragic stories on Twitter revealing the ramifications of the devastation of the pandemic in India gained great attention on Twitter.\u00a0 Saudi also reached out to India supplying oxygen; however, disappointingly, USA declined to lift an export ban on raw materials needed to make COVID-19 vaccines.<\/p>\n
Many hospitals have put out SOS messages on Twitter asking for help with oxygen supply to save patients and the matter reached the high courts and Supreme Court.\u00a0 #IndiaNeedsOxygen trended on Pakistan Twitter, where many Pakistanis are asking Pakistan’s PM Imran Khan to help India with oxygen supply and this move ignited a rare new warmth between the two nations.\u00a0 Pakistan’s Edhi Foundation wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, offering help in the form of \u2018a fleet of 50 ambulances\u2019 and other services.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court on Thursday stated that it expects the Central Government to come out with a \u201cnational plan\u201d on supply of oxygen and essential drugs for treatment of infected patients and method and manner of vaccination against the disease.<\/p>\n
In the global response to India’s call for help, in Saudi Arabia, the Indian Embassy in Riyadh announced about 80MT of liquid oxygen are also expected to be flown to India from a company in Saudi Arabia.\u00a0 The Indian Embassy tweeted, “Embassy of India is proud to partner with Adani group and M\/S Linde in shipping much needed 80MT liquid oxygen to India. Our heartfelt thanks to Ministry of Health Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for all their help, support and cooperation.”<\/p>\n
In America, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce urges the Biden administration to release millions of AstraZeneca vaccines to India and Brazil, drastically hit by COVID-19,but the Biden administration refuses India’s request to lift an export ban on raw materials needed to make COVID-19 vaccines.<\/p>\n
The US State Department said that the US is focusing on vaccinating the American people when asked about sending raw materials to India for vaccine production. This response came after the Serum Institute of India asked the US to lift an export ban on these materials, the response was first obligation is to Americans, says US.<\/p>\n
It was also said, “It’s of course not only in our interest to see Americans vaccinated; it\u2019s in the interests of the rest of the world to see Americans vaccinated.\u201d This seemed to suggest that Indians\u2019 vaccination was less important.\u00a0 Some estimates suggest that the US export ban could last another month and certainly, at the critical peak that India is facing with its high population of over a billion people, this did not sit well with India.<\/p>\n
While India did not get a favorable response from USA, the help from Pakistan and Saudi Arabia’s outreach is stirringly heart warming at such a dreadful time in the world.<\/p>\n