Mumbai: Philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership in tackling the COVID-19 epidemic by adopting a range of measures, including a lock system, and increased health spending to strengthen the health system’s response.
“We applaud your leadership and the proactive steps of you and your government that have taken steps to reduce the level of COVID-19 infection rates in India, such as adopting national lockdown, identifying hot spots for isolation, quarantining, and care, and significantly increasing health expenditures to strengthen the health system response and promote R&D and digital innovation,” Gates wrote.
He said: “I am delighted that your government is fully utilizing its exceptional digital capabilities in its COVID-19 response and has launched the Arogya Setu Digital App for Coronavirus tracking, contact tracing and connecting people to health services.”
Gates continued, “I am grateful to see that you want to balance the public health imperative with the need to ensure adequate social security for your Indians.”
On March 24, Prime Minister Modi announced a 21-day nationwide bandh as a precaution to stop the spread of COVID-19. The lockdown was later extended to 3 May.
The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Wednesday that the total number of coronovirus positive cases in India has risen to 20,471, with 1,486 new cases and 49 deaths in the last 24 hours.
Out of the total number of cases, 15,859 are active cases, 3,959 cured or discharged or migrated and 652 deaths.
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