World Health Organisation’s Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan has commended India for keeping the coronavirus cases and deaths very low compared to other countries and said it will play an important role in the development of a vaccine for Covid-19.
She said the whole world has to be prepared for the ongoing transmission of infection for “many many months and for perhaps years to come”.
Soumya said it is not just enough to develop and test the vaccine, but it is also crucial to manufacture it, scale-up procurement and get health systems to vaccinate populations.
Speaking on the National Technology Day, Soumya said, “I would like to commend and congratulate the Minister and colleagues for having contained so far the Covid pandemic in India and having kept both the number of cases and the number of deaths very low compared to other countries.”
All participants, including Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan, addressed the conference online. “However, we know it is the marathon that we are running. It is not the sprint, and India and in fact the whole world has to be prepared for the ongoing transmission of infection for many many months and for perhaps years to come,” she said.
Soumya, who served as Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research, said there are many challenges in India in terms of over-population, over-crowding in many of the urban areas and poor access to healthcare facilities in some of the rural areas.
“This is the time, actually, for us to strengthen public health surveillance, primary health care delivery, and strengthening of the health workforce,’ she said. On vaccine development, Soumya said many vaccine candidates are being developed in India, some in partnership with other groups and some on their own.”
“India will play an important role in vaccine development. The world cannot have enough vaccines for everyone if India is not part of the process,” she said.
According to the World Health Organisation, as on Monday there have been 39,76,043 confirmed cases of Covid-19, including 2,77,708 deaths. In India, the death toll due to Covid-19 stood at 2,206 on Monday, while the number of cases was 67,152 in the country.
India has won global appreciation for its handling of the pandemic. Now it’s time to live up to the name by easing the lockdown in a very careful manner.