For the United States, reducing the wait time for US visas for Indians is the “number one priority”, the new US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti has said, according to reports.

Mr Garcetti is taking charges at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi has started preparations to fly to the US on a state visit on June 22. US President Joe Biden is also expected to visit India later this year to attend the G20 summit in Delhi.

“I am very excited to be the ambassador here not only when Prime Minister Modi will come to the US but President Biden will be able to come here as well. That’s historic. I am not sure if this has happened before, both leaders visiting each other’s country in a gap of just months,” Mr Garcetti told NDTV in an exclusive interview on Thurdsay.

On a question whether he would be looking into the issue of long wait time for US visa, Mr Garcetti said, “Absolutely, and the President said, ‘Eric, go fix this’. It’s not just a 10th or 11th priority. It’s the number one priority for me.”

“I think visas touch Indians more directly than anything else that America does. And it’s a good problem to have. More and more Indians want to come to the United States, to study, as tourists… We are committed to solving this problem,” the US Ambassador said.

“Already, wait times (for visa) are down 60 per cent since the beginning of the year. In January, February and March, we processed a record number of visas. Last year the largest source of student visas came from India than any other country. Hold on, in the next few weeks, when our leaders meet, you will get many announcements. And even before that we are prepared for the student visa season and already the wait time is getting shorter and shorter. We want more Indians to continue to come to America,” Mr Garcetti said.

The US is on track to issue more than a million visas to Indians this year, a top official had said in April. The US is also prioritising H-1B and L visas, the most sought-after by information technology professionals from India, Donald Lu, the Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, had said in April.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.

Mr Garcetti, while talking about India’s G20 presidency amid the war in Ukraine, told NDTV that India’s G20 presidency is “impressive” as “India is a bridge between the past and the future, between east, west, north, south”.

“We stand with India on those aspirations to make sure G20 is not just about the war in Ukraine. We won’t stop speaking out strongly about an unprovoked invasion by Russia. I am sure Indians understand how important borders and sovereignty are. At the same time we know there are relationships that have been there for decades,” he told the television network.

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You may ridicule her but you can’t ignore her bold initiatives in leading from the front against diseases. Kerala’s Virus Warrior, as one magazine had called State’s Health Minister K.K. Shailaja, has been featured in Science magazine published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Under the heading ‘How a communist physics teacher flattened the COVID-19 curve in southern India’ the magazine traces her work in controlling the spread of COVID-19 in Kerala. Even though she had been called names in the State Assembly by the Opposition, it was her alertness that had stemmed the spread the virus in the State quite early.
The report starts, ‘When the World Health Organization (WHO) issued its first statement on the spread of a novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China, on 18 January, few local governments in India paid close attention. But K. K. Shailaja, the diminutive woman running the health ministry in the southern state of Kerala, immediately perked up her ears.

Shailaja knew many students from Kerala were studying at Wuhan University, and she understood the havoc an outbreak could cause. In 2018, during her first stint as a minister, she faced an outbreak of Nipah virus, another deadly pathogen spread from animals to people. “We knew anything could happen at any time,” she says.

By 24 January, Shailaja had called a meeting of her rapid response team, set up a control room, and mobilized surveillance teams. On 27 January, the first group of students flew back from Wuhan. Three days later, one of them tested positive for COVID-19, becoming India’s first confirmed case.

It is to her credit that only 0.36% of confirmed cases have died, a mortality rate that is among the lowest in the world and reflects both Kerala’s young population and high-quality health care. The magazine, quoting virologist Shahid Jameel, director of Ashoka University’s Trivedi School of Biosciences, says “In many ways, [Kerala] got it right. They possibly got it right the most of any Indian State.”

Much of the credit goes to Kerala’s calm and cheerful Health Minister, often called “Shailaja Teacher” because of her old job as a high school teacher. Although Kerala benefited from historical advantages including the country’s highest literacy rates and arguably its best primary health care system, experts say Shailaja’s leadership has been critical. “She listens to people, she visits hospitals privately, she talks to doctors,” says K. Srinath Reddy, director of the Public Health Foundation of India. “She comes across as a person who is blessed both in ability and humility.”

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Carlos was apparently infected, as he was busy treating coronavirus patients. Later, he passed on the infection to his wife and father Jorge. According to reports published in the local media, Carlos was an internist working on the frontline, and he has treated more than 70 patients, in three nursing homes.

Dr Jorge died six days after he was admitted to Palmetto General Hospital. However, Carlos battled coronavirus for more than 42 days, and he finally took his last breath on August 1. At the time of death, Carlos was undergoing treatment at the Cleveland Clinic Florida in Weston, US.

“He really was a hero to so many people. I didn’t even want him to go to the nursing home and the hospitals because I was terrified. He wanted to be loyal. It was like he was available for them 24/7. He really was the true definition of a hero. I knew that when COVID started, that he was going to be a hero,” said Giselle Vallejo, Carlos’ daughter told the Herald.

Lisette Vallejo, Carlos’ wife who is also a psychiatrist hoped that their kids will follow their father’s footsteps in the coming years, and will serve the nation as doctors.

“I’m going to ask God for strength so my sons can finish medical school and follow in their father’s footsteps. I think that’s what he’d want me to do,” said Lisette.

Amid this chaos, the United States continues to top the coronavirus chaos chart with more than 5 million confirmed cases. The death toll in the country has already crossed 1,70,000, and experts believe that this figure is expected to rise in the coming days as several states are seriously considering relaxing lockdown measures.

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