U.S. TO SHIP VACCINE COMPONENTS TO INDIA AS IT BATTLES COVID-19 SPIKE

The United States will immediately send raw materials for COVID-19 vaccines, medical equipment, and protective gear to help India respond to a massive surge in coronavirus infections, US President Joe Biden said 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," Biden said on Twitter after the White House announced a list of measures, Andrea Shalal reported for Reuters.

National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne said U.S. officials were "working around the clock" to deploy available resources and supplies to help India manufacture the Covishield vaccine and tend to the millions of Indians who are sick and dying.

The US will also send therapeutics, rapid diagnostic test kits, and ventilators.

Washington was under mounting pressure to help India, the world's largest democracy, after Britain, France and Germany pledged aid over the weekend.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged all citizens to be vaccinated and exercise caution, as the country set a global record for new COVID-19 infections in a single day. The US was also pursuing options to provide India with oxygen generation and related supplies, Horne said.

US Representative Ro Khanna, the Democratic vice-chair of the Congressional India Caucus, welcomed the announcement but urged Biden to go further and give India the United States' unused COVID-19 vaccine doses from AstraZeneca.

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