The Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan on July 24 attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Health Ministers’ meeting and highlighted India’s efforts to combat the impact of COVID-19 pandemic.
During the event, he mentioned that how India undertook COVID-19 challenge with the highest level of political commitment where PM Narendra Modi personally monitored the situation and ensured a pro-active, pre-emptive, and graded response.
Dr. Harsh Vardhan, while speaking at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Health Ministers’ meeting also expressed his deepest condolences at the loss of lives all over the world due to the ongoing pandemic.
Participated in an exhaustive & highly informative virtual meeting of ‘Health Ministers of Shanghai Cooperation Organization’ regarding best practices being followed by #SCO Member States to prevent spread of #COVID19. The meet was organised by the Russian Federation in Moscow. pic.twitter.com/ZwpqETxycF
— Dr Harsh Vardhan (@drharshvardhan) July 24, 2020
Harsh Vardhan on how India undertook COVID-19 challenge |
| • While expressing his sincere gratitude for the efforts of those who are in the frontline, the health minister called the pandemic as an unprecedented disaster that the world is facing. • The Union Health Minister noted that so far India has reported 1.25 million cases and more than 30,000 deaths and highlighted that India has one of the lowest cases of COVID and deaths per million population. • He stressed that India started its preparedness measures much before the outbreak was declared the public health emergency of international concern by WHO. • To combat the infection, India took some very bold steps such as implementing nationwide lockdown in the very initial stages. • While highlighting that the disease surveillance program in India has enrolled 3.2 million persons for community-based follow-up, the minister informed that the laboratory network has been scaled up to nearly 1,300 laboratories that are capable of testing RT-PCR. • While providing the data, he added that the TruNat and CBNAAT have been repurposed for COVID-19 testing and additionally antigen-based testing has also been introduced in a major way in the containment zones. • The Union Health Minister asserted that the local technology has been harnessed for setting up temporary hospitals that can house up to 10,000 patients in a single- establishment. • He also pointed out that earlier India did not have even a single manufacturer of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) but now the country has developed the indigenous capacity to the extent that it can export quality PPEs. • Similar scaling up of indigenous capacity was also done for reducing the demand and supply gap for medical oxygen and ventilators. • During the event, he also highlighted the use of information technology virtually in every aspect of COVID management. He mentioned ITIHAS and Aarogya Setu app, which is a tracking technology for the surveillance, RT-PCR app for the testing, Facility app for managing the admitted patients information, and hospital bed capacities, which is all integrated with a single COVID portal. • The Health Minister also talked about the Indian traditional system of medicine which contributed to boosting the immunity of the general population. |
Suggestions by India during SCO health Ministers’ meet:
During the meeting, Dr. Harsh Vardhan proposed setting up a new sub-group on traditional medicine under the existing institutional meetings of SCO Health Ministers.
He added that in order to discuss the proposal and identifying the areas of cooperation, India circulated a concept paper on holding a seminar online. He asserted that India needs the support of all the member states for the proposal for setting up a separate sub-group on the traditional medicine under the meeting of Health Ministers.
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