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AUGUST 21, 2020 | The Indian Eye india is a constructive and
| OpINION |
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dependable actor globally
Through the pandemic, the country has not only met its domestic requirements but taken a range of steps for global good
Charsh vardhan Shringla
ovid-19 continues to ex- act a heavy toll world- wide. In India too, pos-
itive cases are rising. However, India’s effective response has led to a significant improvement in its recovery rate, which is now 68.78%. The case fatality rate at 2.01% remains one of the lowest in the world.
High recovery and low-fatali- ty outcomes can be attributed to proactive measures taken to deal with the outbreak from its early stages. In comparative terms, In- dia started screening Covid-19 cases a full 13 days before the first case was detected in the country. India implemented full lock- down on the 55th day of the out- break when it had only around 600 cases. Its public health re- sponse has been appreciated by the World Health Organization (WHO). The government took rapid steps to augment health in- frastructure. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi noted, “India now has over 11,000 Covid-19 facilities and 1.1 million isolation beds. We have ramped up test- ing to over half-a-million tests a day, to be scaled up to a million”.
India’s response has not been confined to meeting its domestic requirements. India has been
The Prime Minister has been constantly engaging with the world leaders, especially from the neighboring countries
have returned under the ‘Vande Bharat’ mission so far through flights, across land borders and on naval ships. We have not only been able to bring home Indian nationals from distant locations but also facilitated the return of Bhutanese, Nepalese and other nationals stranded in third coun- tries to their homes on these re- patriation flights. In recognition of the immense contribution played by the Indian American community in building bridges between India and USA, India has allowed all holders of Over- seas Citizenship of India cards to travel freely between the two countries. The institution of ‘trav- el bubbles’ between India and USA and a few other countries has further facilitated such travel.
Rigorous screening of re- turnees by our diplomatic missions has ensured that the proportion of positive cases re- mains extremely small (less than 0.2%). Testing on arrival by the health ministry and state govern- ments has helped detect these cases. The mission just doesn’t end with the return of Indian nationals. Recognizing that a lot of expatriate Indians would have lost their jobs particularly in the Gulf area, the Govt is mapping the skills of Indians on arrival to reskill and link them with com- panies for job opportunities.
There has also been no let-up in India’s diplomatic outreach during the pandemic. We have initiated and been part of several important conversations glob- ally. Our ‘Neighborhood First’ policy was on full display when
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significantly engaged with the international community in pro- viding the leadership that the global situation demanded. As a responsible stakeholder in glob- al health supply chains, India ensured timely access to essen- tial drugs and medical items for over 150 countries while meeting our own domestic requirements. We reaffirmed our position as first responder to humanitarian crises in the region by deploying medical teams to help Maldives, Mauritius, Comoros and Kuwait deal with the pandemic. India also dispatched naval assets to Maldives, Mauritius, Madagas- car, Comoros and Seychelles to deliver assistance. This demon- strated our strong commitment to the PM’s vision of Security and Growth for All in the Re- gion (SAGAR).
From being a net import- er of Covid-19-related medical items, India has emerged as a net exporter. Today, India man- ufactures over 500,000 personal protective equipment (PPE) kits
and over 300,000 N-95 masks ev- ery day. Our system has shown the necessary adaptability and agility to significantly ramp up production to go beyond our do- mestic requirements.
The repatriation of Indi- an nationals stranded abroad and the evacuation of foreign- ers from India to their home countries have been among the most successful aspects of our response. In the initial days, the ministry of external affairs had promptly set up a Covid cell and a 24x7 control room to as- sist Indian citizens abroad. The PM had also personally directed our heads of missions to extend all possible assistance to our na- tionals stranded abroad. Sub- sequently, the ‘Vande Bharat’ mission, launched to repatriate our nationals stranded overseas, has been the largest exercise of its kind ever undertaken by the government and has demon- strated our capacity to effectively carry out complex humanitarian missions. Over a million Indians
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