On Friday, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya stated that India would elevate the priorities of the Global South at its upcoming G20 conference and other international forums.
Mandaviya, who presided over the virtual session of the Health Ministers at the Voice of the Global South Summit, emphasised the importance of coming together to build resilient health systems “capable of preventing, preparing for, and responding to future health-related challenges while maintaining essential health services”.
This is crucial since India had to cease ordinary services during the first wave of the Covid pandemic to care for patients infected with Covid-19. In discussing the Covid journey, he stated that India has already provided over 2,2 billion doses of vaccines, with over 90 percent of the population over the age of 12 receiving two doses. He stated that an additional 220 million precautionary doses had been provided.
“India’s experience has demonstrated that capacity building of healthcare personnel at various levels of government, along with the utilisation of digital technology, is the way forward,” he stated.
Keeping this in mind, he stated that India had offered its vaccination management platform CoWIN as a digital public good to any interested country and the WHO under the C-TAP project.
Mandaviya also discussed India’s attempts to teach healthcare professionals in Covid testing, clinical practises, and vaccine production and distribution.
