India’s vaccine production will be used to help all of humanity fight this crisis, the WHO chief said.
New York:
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assurance that India will use its vaccine production capacity to help nations fight COVID-19, saying that the pandemic can only be defeated by mobilizing resources for the common good.
In his address to the 75th session of the UN General Assembly on Saturday, Prime Minister Modi said that “as the largest vaccine producing country in the world, I want to give one more guarantee to the global community today. Indian vaccine production and delivery will be used to help all mankind fight this crisis. “
He said that even during these very difficult times of the terrible pandemic, India’s pharmaceutical industry has shipped essential medicines to more than 150 countries.
“Thank you for your commitment to solidarity, Prime Minister @narendramodi. Only together, mobilizing our forces and resources together for the common good, can we end the COVID-19 pandemic,” said WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a Peep.
Prime Minister Modi told the 193 members of the UN General Assembly that in India and the neighborhood “we are moving forward with phase 3 clinical trials in India.”
Prime Minister Modi further assured that India will also help all countries to improve their cold chain and storage capacities for the delivery of vaccines.
However, he questioned the United Nations response in the fight against the pandemic that has so far infected more than 32 million people in the world and will soon reach the grim milestone of one million deaths.
“For the past 8 to 9 months, the entire world has been fighting the coronavirus pandemic. Where is the United Nations in this joint fight against the pandemic? Where is its effective response?” PM Modi said.
Melissa Fleming, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications, said Prime Minister Modi’s claim is “good news” because UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had told the General Assembly in his speech last week that “vaccinationism” is not only unfair but counterproductive.
With the COVID-19 pandemic soon reaching the grim milestone of one million deaths, Tedros Adhanom Guterres had berated countries that are making “side agreements” to have a COVID-19 vaccine exclusively for their own populations.
“This ‘vaccinationism’ is not only unfair, it is counterproductive. None of us are safe, until we are all safe. Likewise, economies cannot run with a rampant pandemic,” Tedros Adhanom Guterres had said.
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