Page 34 - NIS English 2021 November 16-31

War Against COVID-19
THIS DAY OF 21ST OCTOBER 2021
HAS BEEN RECORDED IN HISTORY.
THIS ACHIEVEMENT BELONGS TO
INDIA, TO EVERY CITIZEN OF INDIA.
THIS ACHIEVEMENT OF INDIA IS
UNPRECEDENTED IN THE FIELD OF
HEALTH AS WELL AS A SYMBOL OF
INDIA'S POTENTIAL ON THE WORLD
STAGE. WE ARE WITNESSING THE
VICTORY OF SCIENCE, ENTERPRISE AND
THE COLLECTIVE SPIRIT OF THE 130
CRORE INDIANS.
- NARENDRA MODI, PRIME MINISTER
32 New India Samachar November 16-30, 2021
it is no exaggeration that India is leading the world
as far as vaccination is concerned.
INDIA OWES IT TO DILIGENT EFFORTS FROM HEALTH
WORKERS TO SCIENTISTS
The entire world was in awe when a state like
Bihar pressed into service boats to ensure that
Covid-19 inoculation was carried out even in areas
that were submerged under flood waters. Similarly,
India set the record of one of the fastest vaccination
campaigns amidst the challenges of reaching
the inaccessible mountain areas and remote
tribal areas while battling rumours of all kinds.
In a diverse country with difficult geographical
conditions, the people’s participation became the
cornerstone of India’s successful and the world’s
largest vaccination campaign. India owes the
success of the vaccination programme to the
efforts of scientists, frontline workers and health
workers. Prime Minister Modi acknowledged their
contribution when he visited Delhi’s Ram Manohar
Lohia Hospital on the historic moment of the 100
crore doses and thanked everybody. He also
shared stories of several health workers during
his monthly ‘Mann Ki Baat’ programme. Poonam
Nautiyal, posted as ANM at Chani Korali Center in
Bageshwar district of Uttarakhand, mentioned the
challenges while interacting with the Prime Minister.
“Sometimes, the roads used to be blocked due to
rains. We had to cross the rivers several times for
vaccination. We used to walk 8 to 10 km daily in the
lowlands. Despite these difficulties, we resolved
that not a single person should be spared and gave INDIA'S VACCINATION
vaccines to people by visiting them. Many people
had to be persuaded for this, but we managed to COVERAGE EXCEEDS
fulfill our goal.” It is because of the undaunting
spirit of people like Poonam that Uttarakhand
emerged as the first state to administer 100% first
dose of Covid vaccines.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi also wrote a
special article, referring to the challenges of the
vaccination program: “Till today, only a handful
of countries have developed their own vaccines.
More than 180 countries are dependent on an
extremely limited pool of producers and dozens of
nations are still waiting for the supply of vaccines,
even as India has crossed 100 crore doses! It is
here that credit should be given to Indian scientists