Minister holds meeting with WHO officials

Federal Minister of Health and Family Welfare Harsh Vardhan yesterday held a highlevel video conference with World Health Organisation (WHO) officials on the measures to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

The two sides decided to start a systematic engagement of WHO’s national polio surveillance network, and other field staff, for Covid-19 response.

The meeting was addressed by Vardhan and director of WHO southeast Asia Region Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh.

Minister of State for Health Ashwini Kumar Chaubey was also present at the meeting.

The meeting was attended by over 1,000 WHO staff including field staff handling polio, tuberculosis and tropical diseases, and other state officials.

“I believe that until we get a cure or vaccine we must adhere to the social vaccine called social distancing,” Vardhan said.

The meeting aimed at strengthening Covid-19 response.

“In the fight against Covid-19 we have entered a stage where surveillance is going to play a vital role in making future strategies for containment for better forecasting and decision making for response to coronavirus pandemic,” said Dr Khetrapal.

She said India has its unique challenges and also the capacity to overcome them, an example being the elimination of polio in 2014.

She complimented Vardhan for introducing several of the key polio elimination initiatives as health minister of Delhi in 1994.

The strengths of the National Polio Surveillance Project - surveillance, data management, monitoring and supervision, and responding to local situations and challenges will be utilised to supplement efforts of National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to strengthen Covid-19 surveillance.