Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan held an interactive session through video conferencing on Wednesday with senior officials and field officers of the World Health Organization (WHO) on the measures being taken for containment of COVID-19 in India. Exhorting the WHO officials, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said, we have to work together to eradicate this virus as we eradicated polio and smallpox earlier. He said, We can and we will defeat this novel coronaVirus.

The Health Minister said, WHO is an important partner in our fight against the COVID-19 and India really value guidance and contributions made by the WHO in containing spread of COVID-19 across the country.

In the meeting deliberation was held on further strengthening the partnership and the measures that can be taken at the field level to further ramp up the response. He said that India was first to respond to COVID -19 and stands on a better footing than the rest of the world because of the valuable and sincere services of our Corona warriors. He said, we are able to check this enemy through community surveillance, issuance of various advisories, cluster containment and dynamic strategy.

The Minister appreciated the leadership of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he is very receptive and accommodative to the suggestions given by experts from time to time, which in turn has led to India handling the bull of COVID-19 by its horns. Praising India’s response to COVID-19 the Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia Region, Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh said, despite huge and multiple challenges, India has been demonstrating unwavering commitment in its fight against the pandemic.