200 Indian American organisations support India's fight against coronavirus

Nearly 200 Indian-American organisations have praised the people of India for showing fortitude, discipline and social consciousness in their fight against the coronavirus pandemic that has wreaked havoc across the world and claimed over 95,000 lives.

According to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University, there are over 1.6 million cases of the novel coronavirus and 95,000 deaths globally.

In India, the death toll due to COVID-19 was 199 and the number of confirmed cases climbed to 6,412, according to the Health Ministry on Friday.

In a message of solidarity, these Indian-American organisations, said they "salute the efforts" of all those individuals who along with international organisations; national governments; and private, public and social sector organisations are working tirelessly often at a huge personal risk to tackle this crisis and save precious human life.

"We would especially like to commend the mammoth efforts of the Indian government and states working cohesively under the able leadership of Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi for the wide-ranging and timely measures to address this issue and to alleviate the inevitable hardship that they will endure during this time of lock-down," the message said.

"We salute the citizens of India for your fortitude, patience, discipline, and social consciousness at this testing time," the Indian American organisations said in a message of solidarity and appeal from them.

We appeal to you all, sisters and brothers to continue to keep trust, keep strong, and follow the advice and guidance of Prime Minister Modi during these testing times, they said in the message.

"All of us in the USA and the rest of the world share in the suffering and stand united in our resolve to see the world through this crisis for a brighter and better tomorrow," the organisations said.

The coronavirus pandemic has claimed over 16,000 lives and infected over 460,000 people in the US, devastating the country's economy and rendering a record 16 million workers jobless in just three weeks.

Of this, the New York metropolitan area, comprising the adjoining New Jersey and Connecticut, alone account for more than 9,000 and 220,000 cases respectively.