ICMR DG says India controlled spread of Covid-19 faster than other nations

Indian Council of Medical Research’s Director General (ICMR DG) Balram Bhargava on Wednesday said that India has been steadfast in its approach towards curbing the spread of coronavirus disease right from the beginning of the pandemic.

The ICMR DG said that India’s approach was marked by 5Ts - testing, tracking, tracing, technology, treating - which was different from the approach taken by the health ministries of other Western nations.

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“In terms of Covid 19 vaccines, we've rapidly developed these 2 vaccines, which are very safe, they have been tested on large populations in India and some other parts of the world. Machinery is robust in terms of vaccine manufacture, delivery and safety,” Bhargava was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Bhargava also said that India scaled up its testing capacity in a short period of time. He said that India built up to 2,500 labs in a short duration and used the crisis presented by the pandemic as a means to develop its medical infrastructure.

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“In the beginning, we thought that our infrastructure would be very weak, and it can crash at any point. But since the approach was science driven, top-down, with people working 24x7 in a collaborative manner, it has led to some good results that we see today,” he said.

Bhargava also lauded healthcare officials and India’s vaccine manufacturers for quickly developing the two Covid-19 vaccines - Covishield and Covaxin - within a short period of time. “In terms of Covid 19 vaccines, we've rapidly developed these 2 vaccines, which are very safe, they have been tested on large populations in India and some other parts of the world. Machinery is robust in terms of vaccine manufacture, delivery and safety,” Bhargava said.

India has vaccinated more than 4 million people in less than three weeks making it the fastest nation to reach Covid-19 vaccination milestone. The Union health ministry said that more than 41,38,918 health and frontline workers have been inoculated so far.