New Delhi, April 1 (Representaive) Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday said the vaccination programme run by the government helped the country sail through the Omicron wave and lauded the ICMR for its role during the pandemic. During Question Hour in the Lok Sabha, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said the Covid supermodel published in October 2020, the ICMR-run Indian Journal of Medical Research predicted that the epidemic in India had passed its peak in September 2020 and that the country would be able to control its spread by the end of February 2021 by following the safety protocols already in place.
“Top government officials including the Prime Minister himself mirrored the rosy projections of the supermodel; Modi said in February 2021 that India’s fight against Covid-19 had inspired the rest of the world but barely two months later, India reported record-high levels of Covid-19 cases amid a devastating second wave which left lakhs dead and many more severely ill,” the MP said. He asked if the ICMR “misguided” the Prime Minister or the Prime Minister himself had “misguided” the ICMR. In reply, the Health Minister said it was because of the timely direction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India was able to sail through Covid.
“I would like to inform everyone that it is because of the PM’s timely and correct directions that India has been able to do the best Covid management and vaccination,” Mandaviya said. On ICMR, Mandaviya said it has from time to time guided the country, helped in vaccine-related research leading to India having its own indigenous vaccine. “India today is the country with the world’s largest vaccination drive. In the third wave, the number of deaths across the world were similar to that in the second wave, but in India, because of the successful vaccination drive, the third wave passed easily.”