Coronavirus outbreak: India delivers hydroxychloroquine to Dominican Republic

India has delivered a batch of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine to the Dominican Republic. A video of the same is also doing rounds on social media. In the video, it can be seen that boxes of hydroxychloroquine taken to a storage room by some officials.

Earlier, Special Envoy from the Dominican Republic to UN Ambassador Jose Singer and President of Security Council for April expressed gratitude to India for the donation of 200,000 hydroxychloroquine tablets to his country.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres salutes countries helping others in the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, his spokesman has said, days after India sent supplies of the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine to several nations, including the US.

Hydroxychloroquine has been identified by the US 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. The demand for the drug has swelled rapidly in the last few days after India decided to lift a ban on its export.

India lifted a ban on the export of the anti-malaria drug, seen as a possible cure for COVID-19. India is in the process of supplying hydroxychloroquine to 55 coronavirus-hit countries as grants as well as on a commercial basis. Several countries including the US, Mauritius, and Seychelles have already received the drug in the past few days while several others will get it by the weekend.

In a recent telephonic conversation, US President Donald Trump requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow the sale of hydroxychloroquine tablets ordered by the US to treat the growing number of coronavirus patients in his country. Trump had praised Modi for his strong leadership and said that India’s help during this crisis will not be forgotten.

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