US working with India in combating pandemic; sending lot of ventilators to India.
As President Donald Trump launched Operation Warp Speed, “a massive scientific, industrial, and logistical endeavor” to quickly find a vaccine for coronavirus, he hailed the role of Indian Americans in combating the pandemic.
US, he told reporters Friday, was also working with India in the fight against the pandemic which has claimed over 300,00 lives worldwide with more than 88,000 death in America, the epicenter of the deadly disease.
“And we have a tremendous Indian population in the United States,” Trump said briefing reporters in the White House Rose Garden on the development of a vaccine as America prepares to reopen.
“And many of the people that you’re talking about are working on the vaccine too,” he said. “Great scientists and researchers.”
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Recalling his February visit to India, Trump said, “So, India has been so great. And, as you know, your Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) has been a very good friend of mine.”
“I just got back, a short while ago, from India recently,” he said. “And we’re working very much with India too.
“Yeah, we’re working very closely also with India. Correct,” Trump said asking the Indian origin reporter to, “say hello to your Prime Minister.”
“A key feature of our reopening plan is the largest and most ambitious testing system in the world, by far, Trump said.
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“Another essential pillar of our strategy to keep America open is the development of effective treatments and vaccines as quickly as possible,” he said noting the US was working “with other people outside, and that’s fine too.”
Later before going to Camp David for a series of meetings with governors on reopening America, he told reporters, “We’re sending a lot of ventilators to India.”
“I spoke to Prime Minister Modi, and we’re sending quite a few ventilators to India,” Trump said without specifying a number. “We have a tremendous supply of ventilators.”
At the White House press briefing, Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany noted that the “President just extolled our great relationship with India.”
“India has been a great partner to us for quite some time, and I’m encouraged here about the ventilators to India,” she said.
“It’s one of the several countries I noted that will be getting ventilators,” she said, “because, you know, this President has done so well on ventilators — 100,000 in 100 days — that we are able to repurpose them and then send them around the world.”