A large consignment of an antimalarial drug, which President Donald Trump has promoted as a potential “game-changer” in the fight against the coronavirus, arrived here from India on Saturday.
The United States has become the country with the highest number of deaths, overtaking Italy, and confirmed cases of infections.
More than 20,600 people had died of coronavirus in the United States till late Saturday evening, surpassing Italy’s toll which was 19,468. The number of cases was up to 529,740.
Crates of Hydroxychloroquine covered in blue protective wrapping were offloaded from a cargo flight from India at the Newark international airport in New Jersey which is also among the hardest-hit states in the country. Ordered by the United States in March, the drugs were possibly headed for the federal stockpile from which they will be distributed. Supporting our partners in the fight against #Covid19. Consignment of hydroxychloroquine from India arrived at Newark airport today,” Taranjit Sandhu, Indian ambassador to the United States wrote in a tweet with a picture of the packages being carted away at the airport.
India lifted restrictions on the export of Hydroxychloroquine and a bunch of other drugs earlier in the week at the request of President Trump in a phone call last Saturday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.Thanking India for the “HCQ decision”, he has since said it “will not be forgotten”.
The American president has been advocating the use of Hydroxychloroquine to treat the coronavirus disease despite no evidence that it works. He has argued that it has been used to treat malaria for decades and is proven to be safe and patients have nothing to lose by trying it. Medical experts have warned, however, of side-effects that can be fatal.
The Food and Drug Administration, the US drug regulator, first allowed it to be prescribed by physicians to severely ill patients under “compassionate use” guidance and then sanctioned a large-scale trial among the ailing in New York, the epicentre of the American outbreak.
India is one of the world’s largest producers of Hydroxychloroquine but it had ordered an export ban on it and two dozen other medicines to shore up its own reserves in the wake of the epidemic. Those restrictions were removed earlier this week.