With Covid-19, India’s crisis is an emergency for the world

The US has sent four planeloads with some 1,500 oxygen cylinders, 125,000 vials of the antiviral remdesivir, and more than 900,000 N95 masks, according to The Times of India.

Britain sent 480 small devices known as oxygen concentrators and Ireland sent 700, while France ferried in eight oxygen generators for hospital use.

China’s help is mainly in the form of

to sell equipment to India. In China, government instructions are important in shifting company priorities.

In April, China supplied 5,000 ventilators and 21,569 oxygen generators to India, according to Beijing’s envoy to New Delhi. But tensions between the two countries meant they left it late to give and receive.

Hong Kong has also sent 800 oxygen concentrators and others have pledged more supplies.

While oxygen equipment can reduce the death toll, it is still not clear how we can stop the tsunami of infections.

US top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci has suggested India follow the Chinese model of building makeshift hospitals and mass lockdowns. But this would be tough for the country to do.

Other experts have suggested speeding up vaccination in India, although production and roll-out takes time. Worse still, scientists are unsure how well the existing vaccines can fend off the new variant that is dominating cases in the country.

This crisis is more than an emergency for India – with such widespread infections, more variants are set to emerge. The world needs to more than simply guarding against imported cases – countries must give more and know what to do if it happens to them.