New Delhi(thestates.news) : Mansukh Mandaviya, the union Health Minister, speaking at the World Health Assembly’s 75th session in Geneva, expressed India’s disappointment with the World Health Organization’s recent data on global Covid mortality. It is with dismay and concern that India notes WHO recent exercise on all-cause excess mortality, in which our Country’s specific authentic data published by the statutory authority has not been taken into account, Mandaviya said.
The Central Council of Health and Family Welfare, a representative body of Health Ministers from all States within India, constituted under Article 263 of the Indian Constitution, passed a unanimous resolution asking me to convey their collective disappointment and concern with WHO’s approach in this regard, he continued. The WHO released a report earlier this month that estimated global all-cause excess mortality due to Covid-19 to be near 15 million, which is more than double the official data. According to the report, the majority of the fatalities occurred in Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Americas.
According to the same report, India had 4.7 million Covid deaths, ten times the official figure and accounting for nearly a third of all Covid deaths worldwide. The health minister went on to say that the WHO needed to be strengthened. As India’s Prime Minister has stated, there is a need to build a resilient global supply chain to enable equitable access to vaccines and medicines, streamline WHO’s vaccine and therapeutic approval process, and strengthen WHO to build a more resilient global health security architecture, he said.
India is prepared to play a key role in these efforts as a responsible member of the global community, he added. Besides equitable access to medical countermeasures, including aspects related to intellectual property, the need for cost-effective research, technology transfer, and regional manufacturing capacities must remain an important focus area, he said.(HS)
