Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that the Coronavirus may be an invisible enemy but the country’s warriors – the medical workers are “invincible”.
He was addressing a group of medical professionals as he inaugurated the Silver Jubilee celebrations of Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Karnataka.
“25 years mean Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences is in the prime of its youth. This is the age to think even bigger and do even better. I am confident that the University will continue to scale new heights of excellence in the times to come,” PM Modi said beginning his address.
He also lauded the efforts of the Karnataka government in handling the Coronavirus pandemic.
The Prime Minister further said that if it had not been for global pandemic, he himself would have been in Bengaluru to mark the day.
“At such a time, the world is looking up to our doctors, nurses, medical staff and scientific community with hope and gratitude. The world seeks both care and cure from you,” PM Modi added.
In a bid to boost the spirit of the health workers amid the Coronavirus crisis, PM Modi said that “in the battle of invisible vs invincible, our medical workers are sure to win”.
He added that doctors and medical workers are “soldiers without uniforms”.
He further made it clear that violence, abuse and rude behaviour against the frontline workers will not be tolerated.
“Due to mob mentality, those workers (safai workers, doctors and nurses) on the frontline are subject to violence. I want to state it clearly that violence, rude behavior is not acceptable.”
The Prime Minister also stated that the post-COVID would be different.
“This is the biggest crisis that we have faced since WW1 and WW2. The pre and post-Covid world will be different,” he said while addressing an online briefing at the silver jubilee of Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Karnataka.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi further called for the need to focus on human centric development. “We are working on four pillars – preventive health care, affordable healthcare, improvement on the supply side and mission mode implementation,” he said.
He also said that the Government would be passing a law to deal with the shortage of paramedical personnel.
PM Modi also urged maximum discussion on advances in telemedicine, use of “Make in India” products in the healthcare and the use of IT tools in medical sector for a healthier society. “Can we think of new models that make tele-medicine popular on a larger scale,” he said.
Referring to the “Make in India” programme, he said the initial gains made in this field make him optimistic. “Our domestic manufacturers have started production of personal protective equipment and have supplied about one crore PPEs to those in the frontline of fighting COVID-19.” PM Modi said IT-related tools for healthier societies can be of great help.
The Prime Minister also mentioned the Ayushman Bharat saying that the world’s largest healthcare scheme belongs to India.
“In less than 2 years, 1 crore people have benefitted from this scheme.Women and those staying in villages are among the major beneficiaries of this scheme,” he said.
He added that the country has seen rapid progress in setting up 22 more AIIMS. “Over the last five years, we have been able to add over 30,000 seats in MBBS and 15,000 seats in post-graduation.”
With 8,392 fresh cases of novel Coronavirus reported in the last 24 hours, India’s tally rose to 1,90,535 on Monday becoming the seventh worst-hit country in the world due to the pandemic. Out of these 93,322 are active cases while 91,818 have recovered according to ministry of health. The virus has claimed 5,394 lives in the country. As many as 230 fatalities were reported in the last 24 hours.