Two US planes carrying oxygen cylinders, rapid testing kits and N95 masks that are the first consignment of COVID-19 assistance totally worth $100 million arrived in India on Thursday night, according to US and Indian officials.

“The planes carried the first tranche of the assistance, which includes oxygen cylinders, rapid diagnostic tests, and N95 masks to protect frontline workers,” President Joe Biden's Deputy Principal Spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said on Thursday.

“Additional flights carrying the remaining assistance, including oxygen generators and concentrators are scheduled to depart in the upcoming days,” she added.

The United States is delivering supplies worth more than $100 million in the coming days to provide urgent relief to our partners in India,” State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said.

“US government flights will start arriving in India tonight and they will continue into next week,” he said. Indian officials confirmed that the first of the shipments had arrived in New Delhi. 

“Just as India sent assistance to the United States when our hospitals were strained early in the pandemic, the United States is determined to help India in its time of need,” Price said.

In addition, “private companies, non-governmental organisations, and thousands of Americans from across the country have mobilised to deliver vital oxygen, related equipment, and essential supplies for Indian hospitals,” Price said.

Price said that the effort to help India has to be broad-based with the participation of the private sector, “the advocacy community” and civil society groups.

“Our assistance, we hope, will have a catalytic effect on society more broadly here and around the world to come to the aid of the Indian people,” he said.

“To galvanize the private sector,” he said that Secretary of State Blinken spoke earlier this week with the US Chamber of Commerce and the Department's Coordinator for COVID-19 Response, Gayle Smith, followed it up with another call to make the point that “everyone has a role to play.”

He was asked by a reporter about reports that there were differences on aid distribution with the US wanting to do it through NGOs and local governments while the Indian central Government wanted the aid routed only through it.

Price said, “Our goal is to see to it that this aid – and this is a goal, of course, that we share with the Indian Government – is to see to it that this aid is put to immediate and effective use.”