iNDICA NEWS BUREAU
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday said that decisions taken at the right time had helped the country control the novel coronavirus pandemic.
“To emerge from any crisis, timing is essential. Decisions taken at the right time have helped the country immensely to control the corona pandemic,” he said on the first of his two-day video-conferences with state chief ministers to take stock of and plot the future course of action on the pandemic.
He said the history of the pandemic would record how the federal and state governments had worked together in a shiny example of the spirit of cooperative federalism.
India, Modi said, had begun to prepare for the coronavirus when it was not even a topic of discussion in many countries.
India is the fourth-most affected country in the world in the novel coronavirus pandemic, according to the Johns Hopkins University dashboard on COVID-19.
India Tuesday morning had recorded 343,091 coronavirus patients in the country, more than half of whom — 180,000 — had recovered from the infection.
Modi pointed to the recovery rate in his speech to laud the country’s lockdown and containment measures.
The death toll from the pandemic was 9,900 in India.
Modi also tweeted in Hindi: “We always have to keep in mind that the more we can stop corona from spreading, the more our economy will open, our offices will open, the markets will open, means of transport will open, and equally will new employment opportunities be created.”