India’s response against COVID-19 receives global praises

Last updated on February 20th, 2023 at 01:11 pm

World Economic Forum (WEF) Chairman Klaus Schwab has lauded the early policy response initiated by the Modi government in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. In a recent interview, the WEF founder hailed the early lockdown decision taken by the government, along with steps taken to ensure the distribution of large-scale food rations and collateral-free credit for small businesses during the critical circumstances.

“The early policy response in India to mitigate the impact of the pandemic was strong; from an early lockdown to large-scale food rations to over 800 million people risking starvation, to collateral-free credit for small businesses,” Mr Schwab said.

He further asserted that India can reap benefits from the opportunity by moving towards a digital and sustainable economy. Focusing on India’s immense diversity and demographic advantage, he added that the country has the potential to shape the global agenda.

In addition, the WEF Chairman highlighted that India could have taken adequate steps to prevent the pandemic from pushing millions of daily-wage workers, informal workers, low-income migrant workers into a state of extreme insecurity. Mr Schwab underlined that many countries showed a lack of epidemic preparedness in their response against COVID-19, the responsibility of which, he added, lies with the government and public health authorities.

“Governments are responsible for providing a strategic stock of healthcare supplies. It is also the responsibility of the authorities who manage the public healthcare systems to ensure there is enough capacity in hospitals and enough supply of crucial equipment like respirators,” he added.

Significantly, the World Health Organization has also lauded India’s timely response against the spread of Coronavirus on several occasions. In April, WHO’s South-East Asia Regional Director Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh had said that India demonstrated unwavering commitment in its fight against the pandemic despite multiple challenges.

Later in July, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist at WHO, had praised the Indian government’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis by taking extremely serious steps from the beginning of the pandemic outbreak. As India became self-sufficient in testing kits and scaling up the number of daily tests conducted, she termed it as a big achievement for the country in the global fight against the disease.

Last month, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had commended PM Modi’s assurance that India will use its vaccine production capacity to help other nations also to fight the COVID-19 virus. PM Modi had addressed the UN General Assembly on September 26, where he said that as the world’s largest vaccine producing country, India will use its vaccine production and delivery capacity to help all humanity in fighting the crisis. Responding to the Prime Minister’s remarks, WHO Director-General Ghebreyesus posted a tweet thanking him for India’s commitment to solidarity against the pandemic.

Meanwhile, India on Monday recorded its lowest daily increase in COVID-19 cases in over three months with 45,149 new infections. At the same time, India also crossed a landmark milestone with more than 70 lakh patients (90%) recovering from the disease.

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