India Sent Medicine to 150 Nations During Covid Crisis: Health Minister Mandaviya

GG News Bureau

New Delhi, 11th March. Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Friday that during the covid crisis, India sent medicines to 150 countries without raising prices or compromising the quality of the medicines.

On Friday, the Minister spoke at the International Symposium on Health Technology Assessment in Delhi.

“During the Covid crisis, India sent medicines to 150 countries without increasing price and compromising on the quality,” Union Health Minister said.

During the pandemic, India provided vaccines, medical equipment, and medicines to more than 150 affected countries, said Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha Harivansh in a Keynote address at the 26th Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers of the Commonwealth (CSPOC) in Canberra, Australia in January.

According to the Deputy Chairman, India facilitated the evacuation of stranded foreign nationals from various parts of India to around 123 countries.

Mandaviya asserts that India meets 65% of the world’s vaccine needs.

“Today, if there is any country in the world which is providing affordable medicines, then it’s India,” he informed.

Harivansh went on to say that India launched an exclusive initiative called “Vaccine Maitri” to supply COVID-19 Made-in-India vaccines to countries all over the world.

As of the first week of December 2022, India had supplied more than 282 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to 101 countries and two UN entities under this initiative.

“Since the outbreak of the COVID pandemic in India, we followed a ‘whole of Government’ and ‘whole of society approach’. We took several measures for containing the spread of the virus, addressing major gaps in the availability of life-saving healthcare facilities, shoring up livelihoods and restoring normalcy in the areas such as education and employment,” he had added.

On the steps taken by the Indian government during the COVID-19 pandemic, he had said, “As regards enacting relevant legislations, the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 was amended by Parliament to provide for adequate safety and protection of healthcare personnel handling patients and the epidemic. The Essential Commodities Act, of 1955 was amended to ensure that there are no shortages of foodgrains and also to keep the commodity prices under check during a pandemic. These changes helped to ensure food security to vulnerable sections of the country through the Public Distribution System.”