NOIDA: Union minister of health and family welfare Harsh Vardhan on Thursday said India may not face the “worst scenario” of the Covid-19 situation due to the various steps taken by the government to check the spread of the virus.
Speaking at the Bennett University’s global online conference on ‘Covid-19 – Fallout & Future’, the minister emphasised that the government has managed to slow the spread of the virus by following a multi-pronged strategy.
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“Measures like active screening, community surveillance, capacity building of ASHA workers and upgrading the health infrastructure have helped India reduce infection rate,” he said.
He said the government had formulated a health preparedness plan within the first few days of India’s first coronavirus case in January this year.
“An aggressive screening of people who travelled from other countries and following their contact history helped the government identify patients in good time,” he said.
Vardhan said a combination of social distancing and lockdown is the “potent social vaccine” for India to combat the pandemic.
The Union minister hoped that India will be able to skip the worst of the pandemic with the addition of 48,000 ventilators that will arrive soon.
Talking about the economic impact of the pandemic, former chief economic advisor Dr Virmani pointed out that the effect of the current lockdown is at 2.8 per cent of GDP.
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“If this lockdown is extended to the end of April, it will go up to 5 per cent; if it is extended to the end of May, it will be 9 per cent. The cost of this extreme lockdown will be much high