COVID19: Digitized network, digital health IDs to be used to immunize citizens: PM

Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, October 19

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday that India was working to put a well established COVID vaccine delivery system in place and this digitized network along with digital health IDs would be used to immunize citizens.

“India is now at the forefront of vaccine development for COVID 19. Some of the vaccines are in advanced stages. We are not stopping here. We are working on putting a well established vaccine delivery system in place. This digitized network along with digital health ID will be used to ensure immunization of our citizens,” PM Modi said on Monday as he delivered a keynote address at the Annual Grand Challenges meeting organised virtually by the Ministry of Science on Monday.

Speaking in the presence of Bill Gates, PM Modi also credited India’s "flexible lockdown" for a high COVID 19 recovery rate.

“Today we are seeing a decline in the number of cases per day and the growth rate of cases. India has one of the highest recovery rates of 88 pc. This happened because India was one of the first countries to adopt a flexible lockdown when the total cases were just a few hundred. India was one of the first to encourage the use of masks. India began to actively work on effective contact tracing. India was one of the earliest to deploy rapid antigen test,” the PM said, attributing low death rates in India to “people's power and people driven approach.” 

India’s COVID case fatality rate is 1.52 pc, among the lowest globally.

The PM also said it had taken COVID to make the world realize yet again the importance of team work.

“Diseases do not have geographic boundaries, diseases do not discriminate,” he said urging collaboration in science.

The PM also lauded India’s scientific institutions as great assets and said India was making 60 pc of the global vaccine requirement.

He said the future will be shaped by societies that invest in science and innovation. “The journey to these innovations must be shaped by collaborations. Science will never prosper in silos,” the PM added.