by Pankaj Yadav
NEW DELHI, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- India has contributed over 10 percent of the world's over 100 million COVID-19 cases so far. As many as 10,676,838 pandemic cases had been registered in the country till Tuesday morning, according to the health ministry.
The country's latest death toll due to the pandemic stands at 153,587, which is over 7 percent of the worldwide deaths.
But, amid the pandemic outbreak the silver lining is that the incidence of COVID-19 has been on the decline in this south Asian country with a population of over 1.3 billion over the past few weeks.
After more than seven months, the new cases registered in a single day has fallen below the 10,000-mark. As many as 9,102 new cases were detected across the country on Monday.
There has been a remarkable improvement in terms of daily COVID-19 deaths too, as 117 people died on Monday which is the lowest in the past nearly eight months.
Over the past one year, the Indian government ramped up COVID-19 testing across the length and breadth of the country, as over 190 million tests have been conducted so far.
As many as 193,062,694 tests have been conducted till Monday, out of which 725,577 tests were conducted on Monday alone, said the latest data issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Tuesday.
On several occasions in recent months COVID-19 testing peaked to over 1 million per day.
The biggest feat India achieved while combating the pandemic has been the indigenous development of two vaccines - Covishield and Covaxin, and finally launching the massive vaccination drive on Jan. 16.
An average of 200,000 people are being vaccinated per day in the country. As per the latest figures, nearly 2 million people have been immunized in India so far, out of which 334,679 beneficiaries were vaccinated through 7,171 sessions on Monday.
Compared to most developed countries in the West and Europe, and considering its huge population base, so far India has been successful in controlling the COVID-19 incidence.
Shailaja Chandra, a former bureaucrat at the health ministry, told Xinhua that keeping in mind its huge population base of 1.3 billion, India has done "extremely well" in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic so far.
"One must not forget that in terms of population, each of states equates to one whole country in Europe or in other parts of world. I would say that the ratio of the COVID-19 cases and deaths to India's total population is comparatively far lower than most countries," she said.
According to her, the reason behind India having over 10.6 million COVID-19 cases so far is the "huge population base."
Shailaja also commended the way India responded to the pandemic. "When the pandemic broke out last year, we had people coming in from different parts of the globe through as many as 28 airports. Initially it wasn't feasible to block entry of people at all the airports in one stroke. But eventually a complete Lockdown was imposed restricting entry of people from overseas," added the former official.
Commenting on the kind of response India presented to combat the pandemic, she said India has one of the best and well-knit administrative set-ups worldwide that responds quite well in disasters.
"The same system responded effectively to the COVID-19 pandemic. In times of crises, the whole government apparatus starting with the Central Government working with the states functions efficiently and the chain of command responds promptly," she added.
According to her, there were glaring examples that showed how fast the Indian government machinery was in control even in comparatively less prominent parts of an essentially rural countryside.
About India's capability of coming out with two COVID-19 vaccines within a span of one year, Shailaja said India has had a very good track record as far as developing vaccines to combat viruses is considered.
"India also has world renowned pharmaceutical industries and has been a net exporter of both vaccines and drugs for decades. We have renowned institutions like Bharat Biotech, Serum Institute, Zydus Cadila, Panacea Biotec, Indian Immunologicals, Mynvax and Biological E, who were all reported to be working on the COVID-19 vaccines in India," added the former bureaucrat.
In case of the COVID-19 pandemic, official approvals were given comparatively at a quicker pace.
The companies saw an opportunity and used their research and technological capacity to accelerate production and trials and that too at affordable prices, Shailaja said.
Now all the state governments have taken on themselves the responsibility of ensuring that everyone gets the vaccines as quickly as possible, she added. Enditem
