New Delhi: With India continuing to register a decline in coronavirus cases and there being hopes of getting a COVID-19 vaccine early next year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday hinted that a “digital health ID” is likely to be used for ensuring immunisation of every citizen.
It may be noted that PM Modi, during his Independence Day speech from the Red Fort, had announced that the government will provide a unique digital health ID to every Indian as part of the National Digital Health Mission.
Yesterday, speaking during the Grand Challenges Annual Meeting 2020 event, PM Modi noted that the country was at the forefront of developing a vaccine to treat CVID-19.
“India is already working on putting a well-established vaccine delivery system in place. This digitised network, along with the digital health ID, will be used to ensure immunisation of our citizens,” the PM was quoted as saying.
The PM had stated during his August 15 speech that the Unique Health ID would carry details of diseases, diagnosis, report, medication etc about each citizen and all this will be stored in a common database.
The PM in his address at the event yesterday also highlighted the challenges and achievements in India’s fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
“India’s size, scale, and diversity have always made the global community curious. Our population is almost four times that of the US; many of our states have as many people as other nations in Europe and Asia. Yet, thanks to people power and a people-driven approach, India kept its Covid-19 death rate very low.
Today, we are seeing a decline in the number of cases per day and in the growth rate of cases. India has one of the highest recovery rates of 88 per cent. This happened because India was one of the first countries to adopt a flexible lockdown, when the total cases were just a few hundred,” Modi said, also pointing out that India was among the first countries to encourage wearing masks.
Addressing the inaugural function of the Grand Challenges Annual Meeting 2020, PM Modi said, “…India is now at the forefront of vaccine development for Covid-19. Some of them are in advanced stages. We are not stopping here; India is already working on putting a well-established vaccine delivery system in place. This digitised network, along with the digital health ID, will be used to ensure immunisation of our citizens.”
PM Modi also talked about the reputation of India at global level when it comes to vaccine manufacturing. “Beyond Covid too, India is known for its proven capacity to produce vaccines at a low cost. More than 60 per cent of the vaccines for global immunisation are being manufactured in India. We included the indigenous Rotavirus vaccine in our Indradhanush immunisation programme. This is a successful example of a strong partnership for long-lasting results. The Gates Foundation has also been a part of this effort,” he said.
“With India’s experience and research talent, we will be at the centre of global health care efforts. We want to help other nations, enhance their capacities, in these sectors,” added the prime minister.
The prime minister aserted that disease does not discriminate on grounds of religion or race and people across the world must join hands to tackle COVID-19. “..It has taken a global pandemic to make us realise, yet again, the importance of teamwork. After all, disease does not have geographic boundaries; disease does not discriminate on the grounds of faith, race, gender, or colour,” he said.
Meanwhile, India saw a large dip in new COVID-19 infecion with less than 50,000 cases being reported in the last 24 hours. As per the Ministry of health data, India recorded 46,791 new COVID-19 cases. The total coronavirus cases in India now stands at 75,97,064 which includes 7,48,538 active cases and 67,33,329 cured/discharged/migrated cases.
