India to extend low-cost pandemic response blueprint to neighbours: PM Modi

New Delhi, May 12

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday announced at a global Covid meet helmed by the US that India will extend its expertise of low-cost Covid response to neighbouring countries.

Pointing out that India has mastered the low-cost Covid mitigation techniques for testing, treating and data management, PM Modi said, “We have offered these capabilities to other countries and will extend this network to countries in the neighbourhood.”

The lessons from two years of the pandemic are clear – a coordinated global response is required to combat future health emergencies. For this he, along with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, advocated that the WTO rules should be relaxed to enable cheaper manufacturing of vaccines and therapeutics in developing countries.

PM Modi also sought a reformed and strengthened WHO to build a resilient global health security architecture. He also raised questions about the WHO’s approval process for vaccines and sought its streamlining to keep supply chains stable and predictable. “India is ready to play a key role in this effort,” he declared. India currently manufactures four WHO-approved vaccines and can produce 5 billion doses this year.