India’s health exec: Testing, vaccination are weapons vs COVID’s 3rd wave

MANILA, Philippines — Regular testing and vaccination are two weapons that India and other countries may use to fight a possible third wave of coronavirus infections, according to an executive of India’s health department.

During an online webinar co-hosted by Asia News Network, The Statesman, and DataLeads, Additional Chief Secretary of India’s health agency Pratyaya Amrit said authorities in the Asian country have observed that casualties were “far less” among vaccinated health workers and frontliners when the country suffered an explosion of COVID-19 cases in April and May.

“Seeing is believing. Once we saw this, we knew the two potential weapons which are going to be effective if at all a corona third wave comes. We are all geared up. We are preparing ourselves for that,” he said.

“One is regular testing, second is vaccination. Only these two weapons are there if we have to fight the possible corona third surge again in the country or the world in that matter. So the entire country today is testing. We are doing a lot of testing and vaccination,” he added.

According to Amrit, India believes in two aspects in facing any national challenge: the “regime of political leadership” and the “implementation of a committed bureaucracy.”

“This vaccination campaign was one of the best examples of this. If you see at the central level or at the provincial level, it is being led by the political leaders and it is being implemented very effectively by the administrative officers along with their team,” he said.

Amrit said India was among the first countries that immediately thought of manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines.

“Whether it was the planning when it comes to making these vaccines available at the right time, that was the first decision that was taken by the government of India and it was taken at a time when many of the countries have not even thought of that,” said the health official.

He also cited how Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi led other government officials in their pandemic response.

“The honorable prime minister met the honorable chief ministers through video conferencing. He kept briefing them. He took the feedback and that is how it is being implemented in the country,” said Amrit.

“We all had to put our best foot forward, huge teamwork and finally we were able to overcome that crisis,” he said.

On September 28, it was reported that India logged only 179 deaths, the smallest increase since the middle of March. COVID-19 infections also rose by 18,795, the smallest leap since early March, raising their total cases to about 33.7 million.

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