New Delhi: Lauding the efforts by India in the fight against COVID-19, country representative of World Health Organisation (WHO) Dr Roderico Ofrin on Thursday praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for making it a Jan Andolan (people's movement).
"The access, affordability and the speed which you get the result of the test, communicating and engaging with the community to be able to do COVID-19 appropriate behaviours-- it was all on the call of Prime Minister, the Jan Andolan," Dr Ofrin told ANI here.
The WHO country's representative also said that the Government of India should be proud of the resilience shown during the pandemic.
"Considering the magnitude of the population, 1.3 billion, 37 states and UTs, 770 districts and multiply the key public health actions into that for that government of India has to be very proud of," he added.
Ofrin further remarked the vaccination drive by the country is successful.
"Bringing diligence and disciplined response to vaccination is another area of responsibility. We see that it has been successful as six million have been vaccinated and it is the fastest rate of vaccination happening," he said.
India recently became the fastest country to vaccinate six million beneficiaries against COVID-19, the union health ministry said on Monday. While USA took 26 days to reach this mark, the UK took 46 days, India achieved the feat in the fastest 24 days.
Speaking about the nature of the virus, Ofrin said, "We have already seen that they (virus) are smart and mutate and manage to adapt like human beings. We should be able to live with the virus managing these risks. Knowing what we know about COVID-19 and know that key basic intervention that all of us can do I call it 3 Ws-- wear a mask, wash your hands and watch out the distance especially in crowds-- then you are able to stop transmission."
The WHO representative called India as a responder and a resource for their world especially in vaccinations and the knowledge can be shared with the globe as he terms "a prepared India is a prepared world." "It is a whole of society approach and India is a responder and a resource especially for vaccination now. That knowledge can be shared with the world and we can think of ancient Vedic philosophy of 'Sarve Santu Nirmaya' which is let all be healthy and a prepared India is a prepared world," Ofrin said.
