Geneva: India may well determine the future trajectory of Covid-19, declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), especially in the manner India handles the unprecedented crisis now on. Dr Michael J Ryan, executive director of WHO health emergencies programme, said while commenting on Covid-19: “India, like China, is a hugely populous country. The future of this pandemic, to a greater extent, will be determined on what happens in very large and densely populated countries.”
“So, it’s really important that India continues to take aggressive action at the public health level and at the level of society to contain, control, suppress this disease and save lives,” Ryan said. He added that India led the world in eradicating two silent killers - smallpox and polio.
“Smallpox killed more people on this planet than all wars together. India, through targeted public health interventions, ended that disease and gave a great gift to the world. India also eliminated polio, another silent killer, and did tremendous job on surveillance, on finding cases, and vaccinating and doing all the things that needed to be done,” Ryan said at a media briefing on the Covid-19 crisis in Geneva, Switzerland.
“The pandemic is accelerating,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of WHO said, as he called for world leaders to stop the highly contagious viral illness in its tracks, where possible, while also mitigating its effect on vulnerable populations and slowing its spread in communities where the virus has already gained a foothold.
As on Monday, Covid-19 has spread to 196 countries and territories worldwide causing illness in 7,40,235 people and claiming the lives of 35,035 people.
In India, there have been 29 deaths due to Covid-19, till Monday, even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation for the second time in seven days, to announce a nationwide 21-day lockdown. The elderly and those with co-morbidities are most vulnerable to Covid-19 and, once infected, may develop complications like acute respiratory distress and lung failure, experts said. Healthcare workers attending upon such patients are at high risk of contracting the infection, too.
Maria Van Kerkhove, technical head of WHO’s Covid-19 response, however, recommended that healthcare workers performing aerosol-generating procedures (for example, placing a tube down a patient’s airway to assist with breathing) should take extra precautions, primarily wearing personal protective equipment.
