India used Coronavirus outbreak as an opportunity: Dr Harsh Vardhan

While discussing the field of health and medicine through video conferencing, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan said that India has used the novel Coronavirus outbreak as an opportunity. Dr Vardhan has informed that India now has over 100 PPE manufacturing units manufacturing 5 lakh PPE per day and has also similarly ramped up its production of N95 masks and ventilators.

New Delhi: Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday said that India has used the novel Coronavirus outbreak as an opportunity.

“This has happened because of our dynamic and visionary Prime Minister who has led from the front and followed the ‘Whole of Government’ approach. From January 8, a day after China alerted the world on the novel pathogen, the government has coordinated amongst its different branches for point of entry surveillance at the sea and land ports, and airports. It strengthened its community surveillance, issued detailed health and travel advisories, and also evacuated thousands of citizens and foreign nationals too,” said Dr Vardhan to Swedish Minister for Health and Social Affairs Lena Hallengren.

They discussed through video conferencing cooperation in the field of health and medicine.

Dr Vardhan has informed that India now has over 100 PPE manufacturing units manufacturing 5 lakh PPE per day and has also similarly ramped up its production of N95 masks and ventilators. India has supplied Hydrochloroxyquine to more than 100 countries, he said.

Dr Vardhan spoke about the decade of vibrant Indo-Swedish partnership which oversaw ten bilateral meetings at the joint working group level. He also mentioned the path-breaking achievements of the Government of India in recent years.

“The Ayushman Bharat Yojana covers a massive 550 million people, maternal and infant mortality have been reduced, India has made giant strides in its target to eliminate TB by the year 2025, while India’s Digital Health Program promises to integrate IT into the healthcare system,” said Dr Vardhan.

The Health Minister said that India has a recovery rate of more than 61 per cent and mortality of as low as 2.78 per cent in spite of being a country of 1.35 billion. “2.5 lakh people are being tested every day,” he informed.

“From a single lab four months back, the country now has more than 1100 labs to diagnose COVID-19. India’s pro-active, pre-emptive and graded approach ensured a plateaued graph and a significant number of unoccupied beds at any point of time in the three-tiered COVID health infrastructure assembled by the government”, Dr Vardhan added.