Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is on his three-day visit to the United States, on Wednesday addressed the Global COVID-19 summit and spoke about India's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, the world's largest vaccination drive and the way forward.
Here are the highlights of PM Modi's speech:
PM Modi said the coronavirus pandemic has been an unprecedented disruption and it is not yet over.
In his address, PM Modi said India shared medicines and medical supplies with over 150 nations. Two indigenously developed vaccines have received Emergency Use Authorisation in India, including world's first DNA-based vaccine (ZyCoV-D), and several Indian companies are also involved in licensed production of various vaccines, he added.
"India has always seen humanity as one family. India’s pharmaceutical industry has produced cost-effective diagnostic kits, drugs, medical devices, and PPE kits. These are providing affordable options to many developing countries," the Prime Minister said.
PM Modi said India shared its COVID-19 vaccine production with 95 other countries and with UN peacekeepers. He also thanked the world for their support during the second wave. "Like a family, the world also stood with India when we were going through a second wave. For the solidarity and support extended to India, I thank you all," he said.
Speaking about COVID-19 vaccination, PM Modi said India is unning the world’s largest vaccination campaign.
"Recently, we vaccinated about 25 million people on a single day. Our grassroots-level healthcare system has delivered over 800 million vaccine doses so far. Over 200 million Indians are now fully vaccinated," he added.
"This has been enabled through the use of our innovative digital platform called CoWIN. In the spirit of sharing, India has made CoWIN & many other digital solutions available freely as open-source software," the PM further said.
With newer Indian vaccines are being developed, PM Modi said India is ramping up production capacity of existing vaccines. "As our production increases, we'll be able to resume vaccine supplies to others too. For this the supply chains of raw materials must be kept open," he said.
"With our Quad partners, we're leveraging India's manufacturing strength to produce vaccines for Indo-Pacific region. India & South Africa have proposed a TRIPS waiver at WTO for COVID vaccines diagnostic & medicines. It'll enable rapid scaling of the fight against pandemic," he added.
PM Modi further said that pandemic’s economic effects also need to be addressed. "To that end, international travel should be made easier, through mutual recognition of vaccine certificates," he added.
