Billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi through a video conference and discussed the world’s response to the Coronavirus pandemic. The two also spoke about the importance of coordination between severely affected countries.
During the video conference, the Prime Minister briefed Bill Gates about India’s response to the pandemic and how the fight against the virus has been people-centric. The Prime Minister’s office released a statement which said,
“The Prime Minister underlined the conscious approach that India has adopted in its fight against the health crisis – an approach based on ensuring public engagement through appropriate messaging. He explained how the people-centric bottom-up approach has helped win acceptability for physical distancing, respect for front-line workers, wearing of masks, maintaining proper hygiene, and respecting lockdown provisions.”
India has an important role to play
The Prime Minister also told Gates that the government is constantly putting efforts to expand financial inclusion, popularizing cleanliness and hygiene through its Swacch Bharat Mission and strengthening last-mile delivery of health services that have strengthened the country to fight against the pandemic.
According to the statement of the Prime Minister’s office, both Modi and Gates agreed that the country’s inclusive fight against the COVID-19 has made its mandatory for it to be included in the global discussion. The office said,
“They agreed that given India’s willingness and capacity to contribute to global efforts, particularity for benefit of fellow developing countries, it was important for India to be included in the ongoing global discussions for coordinating responses to the pandemic.”
Bill Gates also said that India holds a key role in the global fight against the pandemic. Gates had previously written to Narendra Modi praising the leadership of the Prime Minister during a crisis. Gates is now funding the production of the seven most promising ideas for the vaccine for the highly infectious disease.
The number of confirmed positive cases in India rose to 81,970 on Friday morning. The number of death in the country reached 2,649. Globally, COVID-19 has infected more than 44.40 lakh people and has claimed over 3.02 lakh lives, as per the Johns Hopkins University tracker.
Source: Scroll.in
