India’s fight against novel coronavirus pandemic is driven by its people: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that India’s fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic is driven by its people. Address a virtual meeting of American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) last night, Mr Modi attributed the success against the pandemic to the implementation of the nationwide lockdown in its initial phase.

Prime Minister said COVID-19 has been used as an opportunity to work towards making the country self-reliant. This is for the first time that an Indian prime minister addressed the annual meeting of the AAPI, a representative body of more than 80,000 Indian-American doctors in the US. Sharing statistics of various countries, Mr Modi said India had performed much better in the fight against the coronavirus disease. He said, as against the death rate of 350 individuals per million in the US and over 600 per million in European nations like the UK, Italy and Spain, the rate of fatalities in India is less than 12.

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Mr Modi said, Uttar Pradesh has been remarkably successful in fighting against the coronavirus and same is the case with several other states. Prime minister attributed this to the support from the people of the country. He said, without people’s cooperation, the success would not have been possible in the world’s second-highest populated country with high density. According to Mr Modi, India defied the fears of the world’s topmost experts in this regard. He sadi India has been able to save the lives of thousands and lakhs of its citizens because of the timely lockdown. PM Modi said the COVID-19 pandemic had been used as an opportunity to improve the healthcare facilities. For instance, at the start of the coronavirus, there was only one COVID-19 testing lab. Now there are 1,000, he said.

The prime minister underlined that India, which imported most of its personnel protection equipment (PPE) kits at the start of the pandemic, is now almost self-reliant and in a position to export them. The country is making more than 30 lakh N95 masks per week. More than 50,000 new ventilators are being made available to the healthcare sector, all made inside the country, he added. Mr Modi said he is proud of the achievements and contribution of the Indian-origin physicians across the world in the battle against COVID-19.