New Delhi: Union Health Minister Masukh Mandaviya on Friday highlighted that the government adopted a ‘whole of government’ and a ‘whole of society’ approach to effectively manage Covid-19 in the country, reported news agency ANI.
India adopted a ‘Whole of Government’ & ‘Whole of Society’ approach, in a proactive, preemptive and graded manner thus adopting a holistic response strategy, for effective management of Covid-19, he said.
Speaking at Stanford's 'The India Dialog' session on the Economic Impact of Vaccination & Related Matters, the Union minister said, “PM Narendra Modi initiated a preemptive response much before COVID-19 was declared a public health emergency of international concern on 30th January by the WHO.”
He said India was able to save over 3.4 million lives by undertaking the nationwide vaccination campaign at an unprecedented scale. Under the PMGKAY, the Govt focused on ensuring that no one slept hungry and free food grains were distributed to 800 million people.
Last week, the Union Health Minister said that the government has been working to equal the number of undergraduate and postgraduate medical seats within four years so that all MBBS graduates can pursue PG courses. Speaking at the 13th annual conference of the Global Association of Physicians of Indian origin (GAPIO) in Gujarat capital Gandhinagar on Saturday, Mandaviya also invited healthcare professionals from the Indian diaspora to invest in research and open hospital chains in the country with "assured business."
More than 70 countries will sign hospital-to-hospital, country-to-country and country-to-hospital MoUs at the 'Heal In India, Heal By India' expo to be held in April-May this year, he said. "When we open a dispensary, we also need doctors. Eight years ago, India had 51,000 MBBS seats. Today, we have 1,00,226 under-graduate seats, and post-graduate seats grew from 34,000 to 64,000," the minister said.