The government of India has offered medical support to over 150 COVID-19-affected countries, said the Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha – the upper House of the Indian Parliament.
The Deputy Chairman, Harivansh Narayan Singh, made the remarks during the 26th Conference of Speakers and Presiding Officers of the Commonwealth (CSPOC) in Canberra, Australia.
The country’s help extended to vaccines, medical equipment and medicines supplies during the pandemic.
In particular, Harivansh praised India’s “Vaccine Maitri” initiative which helped supplying over 282 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to around 101 countries and two UN entities up until the first week of December 2022.
Deputy Chairman also shared information about the National e-Vidhaan Application (NeVA), which works to connect the legislative bodies of India digitally operating under the theme ‘One National One Application.’
“The key for mitigating the adverse impact of the crisis, I believe, is solidarity and effective collaboration within the comity of nations and India, as one of the largest democracies and a responsible global player, has always remained at the forefront of the fight against global Challenges,” Harivansh said.
“Since the outbreak of the Covid pandemic in India, we followed a ‘whole of Government’ and ‘whole of society approach’. We took several measures for containing the spread of the virus, addressing major gaps in the availability of life-saving healthcare facilities, shoring up livelihoods and restoring normalcy in the areas such as education and employment.”
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Harivansh is leading the Indian Representation at CSPOC.
The conference is running from 3 to 6 January 2023 and brings together Speakers as well as Presiding Officers of Parliaments in Commonwealth countries on a single platform.
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic throughout the Commonwealth has been heavily felt across healthcare systems, leading to an increase in malaria incidence and mortality rate.
