The novel coronavirus pandemic is the most global event since World War II and the widest viral outbreak since the Spanish Flu of 1918. In a sense, it is a product of globalization and interconnectedness. International travel and commerce have helped it spread.
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In India, the fear of rapid transmission prompted the government to act with urgency. China reported the virus to the World Health Organisation on December 31. India's Health Crisis Management Group met fairly quickly, on January 8. Airport checks and screening began on January 18. Isolation facilities, hospital beds and health infrastructure were ramped up in advance of the first case confirmation on January 30. On March 24, the country went into lockdown.
As India moves out of a total lockdown to area-specific restrictions, there is a quiet confidence. While 90,000 people have been infected and close to 3,000 have died, the recovery rate is appreciable. These numbers are nowhere close to the worst-case scenarios epidemiologists had predicted. India has braved the storm.
Many factors have helped, primarily the selfless participation of citizens in the lockdown, and the dedication of doctors and healthcare workers – including while conducting laborious, house-to-house contact tracing in remote areas. A whole-of-society effort has had volunteer groups joining hands with government to provide food and shelter to displaced workers. Industry has repurposed facilities to manufacture personal protective equipment, N95 masks and ventilators. From virtually zero, domestic production has picked up impressively.
Technology has been a force multiplier. In recent years, a program of financial inclusion has triangulated mobile phones, biometric IDs and zero-balance bank accounts and brought hundreds of millions of Indians into the banking system. As the lockdown began, emergency cash transfers were made to such accounts. Extra food rations were delivered to 200 million less well-off families, with the process monitored digitally. A contact tracing app, Aarogya Setu (Bridge to Wellness), was downloaded by 100 million users in its first six weeks.
India also stepped in as a responsible stakeholder in health-security supply chains. While some countries restricted exports, India's pharmaceutical industry worked overtime. It supplied drugs such as HCQ and Paracetamol to 133 countries, some commercially but to the majority as a gift from the people of India. First responder medical teams rushed to countries as far apart as Maldives and Kuwait, Mauritius and Madagascar.
As special friends, Israel and India have been in constant touch. Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Benjamin Netanyahu spoke early in the coronavirus crisis. Israel was among the first to receive Indian medicines. Researchers in both countries are involved in multiple coronavirus vaccine endeavors and have promised to share any success.
On May 11, Israel and India were part of a seven-country, foreign-minister level video meeting to discuss, among other things, pandemic response and global health management. Other countries on the call were Australia, Brazil, Japan, South Korea and the US. Like Israel and India, these are innovative, reliable democracies, with robust pharma and bioscientific capacities. Together we can build a safer, healthier world.
