OTTAWA -- Opposition leaders say they support Canada sending personal protective equipment and necessary COVID-19 medical supplies to India as the country battles record-setting COVID-19 infections and related deaths.
Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole told reporters on Monday that he encourages shipping necessary health-care equipment overseas, something he didn’t approve of early on in the pandemic when Canada was struggling to shore up its own resources.
“Yes I do support helping our friends in India, with ventilators, with equipment if we can. Clearly the absence of oxygen supplies for the country being ravaged by the variant there is something we should do,” he said. “At the beginning of the crisis when we didn’t have sufficient PPE and other materials, we shouldn’t have been sending them around.”
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said Canada “absolutely” has a responsibility to help struggling countries.
“This is a global pandemic, and it’s really showed how much we’re connected. If there is an outbreak in any part of the world, it impacts all of us, we’ve seen that impact, we’ve seen the spread of the pandemic,” he said. “We have to consider ourselves global citizens.”
India is reporting 350,179 new cases and 2,812 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing total fatalities to 195,123. The surge of cases, growing at the fastest pace in the world, has left families and patients pleading for oxygen outside hospitals, the relatives weeping in the street as their loved ones die while waiting for treatment.
The U.S., the U.K. and France have all committed to sending vaccine-related materials, ventilators, oxygen and other supplies to help the country weather the third-wave.
“The United States has identified sources of specific raw material urgently required for Indian manufacture of the Covishield vaccine that will immediately be made available for India. To help treat COVID-19 patients and protect front-line health workers in India, the United States has identified supplies of therapeutics, rapid diagnostic test kits, ventilators, and Personal Protective Equipment that will immediately be made available for India,” a White House statement reads.
Procurement Minister Anita Anand said last Friday Canada is in touch with the high commissioner there about different ways Canada can assist.
“We will stand ready with PPE and ventilators and any items that might be useful for the government of India. I of course have a very personal connection with that country but on a broader level, when we see a country in need, in that regard, we do stand ready,” she said, adding that Canada has secured 2.7 billion items of PPE and 1.5 billion items have arrived into the country.
Foreign Affairs Minister Marc Garneau will also be speaking with his Indian counterpart on Tuesday about what Canadian support looks like.
Last week the government announced a 30-day ban on commercial and private flights from India and Pakistan to curb variant spread domestically.
With a file from The Associated Press.
