US President Donald Trump has expressed his gratitude towards India for sending over 29 million hydroxychloroquine to fight coronavirus. Last week, Trump and Modi interacted on a phone call and the US president requested Modi to lift the hold on the American order of hydroxychloroquine, of which India is the major producer. Hydroxychloroquine has been identified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a possible treatment for the COVID-19 and it is being tested on more than 1,500 coronavirus patients in New York. And therefore, he placed a big order for the drug to treat the coronavirus patients in the US.
Trump said, “I bought millions of doses (of hydroxychloroquine). More than 29 million. I spoke to Prime Minister Modi, a lot of it (hydroxychloroquine) comes out of India. I asked him if he would release it? He was great. He was really good.”
He further said, “Lot of people are looking at it and saying, you know I don’t hear bad stories, I hear good stories. And I don’t hear anything where it is causing death.”
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Trump said that India had stopped the export of the said drug to meet its domestic requirement but allowed the export to the US upon his request. Hydroxychloroquine is an old and inexpensive drug used to treat malaria and India is its largest producer with 70% of the world’s supply.
America has reported the most number of coronavirus positive cases surpassing China and Italy. By Tuesday night, nearly four lakh Americans tested positive for the novel coronavirus and the fatalities were more than 12,850. Meanwhile, India has crossed over 5,000 cases and is expected to cross the 10,000 mark by this weekend.