Addressing the G7 health ministers’ meeting in Japan, Mandaviya expressed commitment to provide India’s digital tools such as CoWIN to other countries for free. Mandaviya said India’s G20 presidency has recognised digital health as a priority area.
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Sunday stressed the need for a collaborative global health architecture that can assure the power of digital solutions to all countries to combat the challenges posed by a future pandemic.
Addressing the G7 health ministers’ meeting in Japan, Mandaviya expressed commitment to provide India’s digital tools such as CoWIN to other countries for free. Mandaviya said India’s G20 presidency has recognised digital health as a priority area.
He proposed the convergence of all digital initiatives through a “global initiative on digital health” housed at the World Health Organisation (WHO) headquarters.
He said the Covid pandemic exposed the fault lines in the existing system and called for a more robust and inclusive system, while maintaining the centrality of the WHO. He also cautioned against fragmented and isolated efforts and said that there was a need for a more collaborative approach to ensure health equity.
Highlighting the case of Covid-19 vaccination programme, the minister raised concern that more than two years after vaccines were rolled out in December 2020, only 34% of the populations in low and middle income countries have access to them as compared to 73% in high income countries as on April 2023.
Health equity, especially when it comes to medical countermeasures such as diagnostics, drugs and vaccines at the time of a pandemic, is one of the three priority areas for India’s health agenda for G20, he said.
Mandaviya was one of the four health ministers from the ‘Outreach 4’ countries – India, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand – invited to the meeting.
The minister separately met the health ministers of Germany and Italy and discussed a host of issues including collaboration on digital health and exchange of human resources.
Source: Indian Express