Amsterdam: A European think-tank has praised India for taking an “empathetic” view of the coronavirus and said that the regional leadership undertaken by New Delhi helped South Asia to contain the pandemic so far.
“The pro-active strategy adopted by India and the rest of South Asia in tackling COVID-19 has, at least till now, yielded good results on the ground. The total number of COVID-19 positive cases in South Asia is relatively low when compared to the close to a million reported in Europe and about 700,000 in the US as of April 15,” said European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS).
EFSAS highlighted, ” India has taken a rather empathetic view of the crisis and has begun providing a whopping 85 million hydroxychloroquine tablets and 500 million paracetamol tablets to a total of 108 countries. It had initially banned the export of these drugs, but reversed that decision as soon as it became apparent that the ban was out of place given the larger humanitarian challenge at hand.”
EFSAS noted that South Asia has been able to control the virus, but irresponsible behaviour by any one country in the region could have a cascading effect on the whole of South Asia.
