What happens with the COVID-19 pandemic depends to a large extent on how densely populous countries like India handle it, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said.
At the March 23 press briefing, the organisation’s Executive Director Dr Michael Ryan, made the above statement. “India, like China, is a hugely populous country. The future of this pandemic to a greater extent will be determined on what happens in very large and densely populated countries. So it’s really important that India continues to take aggressive action at the public health level and at the level of society to contain, control, suppress this disease and to save lives,” he said.
He also made a reference to India’s battle with smallpox and polio – both of which India eradicated in the 1970s and 2014 respectively. “India led the world in eradicating two silent killers – smallpox – one of the greatest successes of mankind, the virus that killed more people on this planet than all wars together. India through targeted public health interventions ended that disease and gave a great gift to the world. India also eliminated polio, another silent killer, and did a tremendous job on surveillance, on finding cases and vaccinating and doing all the things that needed to be done,” Dr Michael said.
Commending India, he said that the country has “tremendous capacities” when communities and civil societies are mobilised and “when as the Director General says, Heads of State and governments drive an all of society approach.”
“It is exceptionally important that countries like India lead the way and show the world what can be done, and do as they have done before and show that aggressive, sustained public health action from community -- right through from the Head of State -- can have a profound effect on the trajectory and the outcome of this pandemic,” Dr Michael said.
“Measures we take now, while we wait for other solutions, we must take them now,” he added.
Meanwhile, Dr Roderico Ofrin, WHO's Regional Emergencies Director praised India's efforts and response to contain and tackle COVID-19 as well.
Its latest announcements related to quarantine and social distancing measures, including recent lockdown of 75 affected districts, suspension of rail, inter-state bus services and metro services are initiatives of unprecedented scale and reflect the country's resolve to prevent the spread of the pandemic," he said. He added that such measures could help slow down the virus transmission, coupled with sustained effective measures to isolate, test, treat and trace those affected.
India presently has close to 500 persons who have tested positive for COVID-19 and nine deaths due to the disease.