India has tremendous capacity to deal with Covid-19: WHO

Michael J Ryan, the executive director of the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Tuesday said that India has a tremendous capacity to manage the implication of the coronavirus situation owing to its prior experience of eradicating two major pandemics in the country.

"There is a need in the number of labs where a surge is seen. India is a very populous country and the future of this virus will be considered in a very highly and densely populated country. India led the world in eradicating two pandemics, small-pox and polio so India has a tremendous capacity," he said at a press briefing on the COVID-19 pandemic.

He then called upon countries like India to aggressively fight against the coronavirus epidemic and “show the way to the world as they have done before.”

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) last week issued an order allowing private labs to conduct tests for COVID-19 for private labs. The order stated that private labs will have to report the number of tests conducted in real-time to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). Each lab will be given a registration number. The labs will have to make all relevant data available to MoHFW for contact tracing of confirmed COVID-19 cases according to the order.

Furthermore, the government of India on Monday imposed a complete lockdown in 30 States and Union Territories covering 548 districts in light of the increasing number of cases in the country.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be addressing the nation today at 8 PM to further discuss the future course of action in order to curb the spread of the outbreak in the country. “Will address the nation at 8 PM today, 24th March 2020, on vital aspects relating to the menace of Covid-19,” PM Modi tweeted from his official account.

India had reported 446 active cases of coronavirus in the country with 36 ‘cured/discharged’ cases and a death toll of nine as of Tuesday morning.

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