India is sending medicines to over 150 nations and has emerged as an exporter of PPE kits and N95 masks

Whether it is early and effective screening of COVID-19 cases or manufacturing and exporting PPE kits and masks or bringing Indians back home through Vande Bharat Mission, India has emerged as a constructive and dependable global actor amid COVID-19, says Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla in an article published recently.

The opinion piece carried by The Manila Times, a Philippines news publication, underlines several exemplary measures taken by India to not only contain the virus in the country but also to help other countries in their fight against the virus.

Shringla says that the Coronavirus cases are on rise throughout the world and India is one of them. The numbers might seem appalling but there is a catch. The effective measures taken by the government of India have improved the recovery rate to 68.78 per cent while the case fatality rate is 2.01 per cent which is lowest in the world.

Underlining some of the measures that the government has taken, Shringla writes that India imposed a lockdown when there were only 600 cases, and early screening also helped. In fact, the screening started 13 days before the first case was detected.

The opinion piece originally published in the Hindustan Times suggests that India ramped up its health infrastructure development and now has over 11,000 COVID-19 facilities and 1.1 million isolation beds. As far as the tests are concerned, India is conducting around 5 lakhs tests in a day and is planning to increase it to 10 lakhs per day, Shringla writes.

According to the opinion post carried by the Manila Times, India is emerging as a global actor by supporting other nations in their fight. The Foreign Secretary says that India has deployed medical teams in Maldives, Mauritius, Comoros and Kuwait while it has sent naval assets to Maldives, Madagascar, Comoros and Seychelles. Apart from that, India is sending medicines to over 150 nations and has emerged as an exporter of PPE kits and N95 masks. India manufactures around 5 lakh PPE kits and 3 lakhs masks every day, Shringla mentions in the article.

In addition to that, around 1 million people have come back home under the Vande Bharat Mission. India is also helping Nepal and Bhutan in bringing back their nationals, Shringla writes.

Read the full article in The Manila Times