The United States will be sending personal protective equipment to India after its recent spike in coronavirus variants, the White House announced on Sunday.
After national security adviser Jake Sullivan spoke on the phone with Indian national security adviser Ajit Doval, the White House pledged to send aid, deploying PPE, medical experts, and other supplies to the Southeast Asia nation.
“To help treat COVID-19 patients and protect front-line health workers in India, the United States has identified supplies of therapeutics, rapid diagnostic test kits, ventilators, and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) that will immediately be made available for India,” the statement said. “The United States also is pursuing options to provide oxygen generation and related supplies on an urgent basis. … Additionally, the United States is deploying an expert team of public health advisors from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and USAID to work in close collaboration with the U.S. Embassy, India’s health ministries, and India’s Epidemic Intelligence Service staff.”
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE INDIA CORONAVIRUS VARIANT CAUSING WORRIES
In recent months, a COVID-19 variant has developed in India, fueling speculation from some medical experts that the strain may be the cause of the country’s new outbreak. The India variant, or “B.1.617,” was first identified in October and was dubbed the “double mutant” variant because it contains two mutations, E484Q and L452R, on the spike protein, or the part of the virus that attaches to the cell.
“Having two of these mutations, which have been seen in other variants around the world, are concerning because there’s a similarity in these mutations that confer increased transmissibility, and some of these mutations also result in reduced neutralization, which may have an impact on our countermeasures, including the vaccines,” Maria Van Kerkhove, the COVID-19 technical lead at the World Health Organization, said in a press conference last week.
B.1.617 has been detected in 10% of the samples that have been genomically sequenced in India, but scientists say more data is needed before they can understand the variant.
“It seems to be the case, but we cannot say it scientifically. We cannot say so as we have sequenced very small numbers of samples, some 15,000 so far, and so we do not have adequate data to conclude that the B.1.617 variant is responsible for the surge,” Dr. Vineeta Bal, an immunologist and a visiting professor at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, recently told News 18, a channel in India.
Scientists are uncertain whether B.1.617 is more infectious or more lethal than other variants, but some worry that it may be the cause of India’s spike in COVID-19 cases. India has had over 16 million cases of COVID-19, and nearly 200,000 deaths have been attributed to the disease, both of which are record highs since the start of the pandemic, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus tracker.
While more than 21 million residents of India are fully vaccinated, that number represents only 1.59% of the country’s population, thus allowing the disease to continue to spread quickly.
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“The B.1.617 variant has all the hallmarks of a very dangerous virus,” scientist William Haseltine wrote in Forbes. “If indeed it is this variant that is driving the unprecedented exponential increase in infections in India, the potential for trouble here in the United States is real and immediate.”
