We have a recovery rate of 61%, said S. Jaishankar (File)
New Delhi:
India has made the right choices in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic and is as well positioned as any country under the current circumstances, said Foreign Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Saturday.
Jaishankar, part of the Group of Ministers (GoM) on COVID-19, said that when the pandemic started to take on global proportions, the choice facing each country was how to respond while playing on its own forces.
Some countries have better testing capabilities like South Korea, while others like Germany have a strong intensive care system, he said in a speech during World Health Week. India 2020 via video link.
“In our case (in India), recognizing our capacities and our limits, we chose to rely very largely on social isolation. We therefore opted for a very early locking, we opted for a very early travel restriction and the result of that, three months on the road … yes, the current workload is significant, it is not significant in relation to the population, “he said.
What is interesting is that if India is third in the world in terms of number of cases, deaths, it is eighth, said Jaishankar.
“We have a recovery rate of 61% and the time saved (due to the first measurements) has not only slowed the spread, it has allowed preparations,” he said, stressing how India has started manufacturing personal protective equipment, intensified its pharmaceutical production. and strengthened the hospital system.
“So we still have challenges to meet, we are very aware of them. I think the next few weeks and months are going to be tough, but in this situation, we think we made the right choices and that we are as well placed as anyone could be under the circumstances “, said the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Speaking of India’s role in the future, Jaishankar said it is the world‘s largest producer of vaccines and that once people discover one or more vaccines, the country will clearly have a role. to play to make it accessible, affordable and available to the rest of the world.
“Even before the vaccine, I must add that in this period of strong increase in demand for coronavirus-related drugs, we have responded. We have supplied drugs to more than 120 countries, including many small countries. “Normally could not have accessed it because the demands for these drugs were very high,” he said.
With a record increase of 27,114 cases in a single day, the number of COVID-19 in India rose to 820,916 on Saturday, while the number of deaths reached 22,123, with 519 people dying from the disease in 24 hours, data from Ministry of Health were updated at 8 am. shown.
The nationwide lockdown was imposed for the first time from March 25 for 21 days in an effort to contain the spread of the new coronavirus. The lockout was first extended until May 3, then again until May 17. It has been extended until May 31.
This was followed by the phases “Unlock 1” and “Unlock 2” during which a large number of social, economic, religious and sporting activities are allowed to operate.
Regarding the politics of a post-COVID world, Jaishankar said that many of the trends observed before the coronavirus pandemic could accelerate.
“What we have seen in the past six months, for example – we have seen many countries behaving in a more nationalistic way, people looking at each other frankly. I understand it to a certain extent,” he said. declared.
