Currents News Staff
India is facing one of the world’s worst COVID-19 outbreaks: more than 200,000 people have died.
Crematoriums are running around the clock and new infections continue to rise and continue to break records.
U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy says hospitals are overwhelmed.
“More than 350,000 people a day are getting infected,” Murthy said. “They’re seeing the hospital systems in many cities on the brink, unable to meet the full demand. They’re running out of oxygen.”
And medical experts in the U.S. say we need to step up.
“We can’t stop until COVID has been conquered all over the world,” Murthy added.
Dr. Richard Besser, former acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the outbreak is a risk.
“Transmission anywhere in the world poses a risk to people everywhere in the world,” said Besser.
This week, the White House committed to sharing up to 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, while still not authorized in the U.S., with other countries.
The U.S. is delivering supplies worth more than 100 million dollars to India that includes the following:
- Refillable cylinders of oxygen
- 1,700 oxygen concentrators to pull oxygen from the air
- 15 million N-95 masks
- Supplies to make 20 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine
- 1 million rapid diagnostic tests
- The first of 20,000 treatment courses of Remdesivir
Planes packed with supplies will continue into next week.
“Global pandemics require global cooperation,” said Murthy.