Amid COVID-19 pandemic, India and Sweden discuss co-operation in health, medicine

As the Coronavirus pandemic continues to grapple the world, the Swedish Minister for Health and Social Affairs Lena Hallengren called upon Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, to discuss co-operation in the field of health and medicine. According to sources, both the health ministers discussed the status and containment measures for COVID-19 in their respective countries.

Dr Harsh Vardhan emphasised on the Indo-Swedish partnership which oversaw ten bilateral meetings at the joint working group level. He also mentioned the path-breaking achievements of the Government of India in recent years and further said that India has undertaken pioneering research in antibiotic resistance.

Dr Harsh Vardhan stated that India has rather used the Novel Coronavirus outbreak as an opportunity, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has led from the front and has adopted various approach. Furthermore, he stated that India has supplied Hydrochloroxyquine to more than 100 countries.

READ: Tejashwi takes a dig at Nitish Kumar over Coronavirus; questions facility for common man

READ: Coronavirus Live Updates: India's tally crosses 7 lakh-mark, recovery rate soars to 61.13%

WHO Lauds India's Efforts

Asserting that India should also focus on data management originating from the pandemic, World Health Organisation (WHO) lauded the Indian government for its efforts in tackling COVID-19. According to WHO, India's big challenge is "population", its geographic diversity, heterogeneity.

The world nodal health agency further extolled the Indian government's strong political leadership to focus on important things like developing diagnostics and being able to scale that up, also being very systematic about the lockdown measures and unlocking in an organised manner.

Speaking to ANI, Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist at WHO highlighted India's achievement, stating that, India is doing more than 200 thousand tests a day and is now developing testing kits.

READ: Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro tests Coronavirus positive after fourth test

READ: Only one new Coronavirus case found in Mumbai's Dharavi area