Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said on Saturday that India’s fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic is driven by its people, while attributing the “success” against the pandemic to the implementation of the nationwide lockdown in its initial phase.

PM Modi during his virtual  address to American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) said, COVID-19 had been used as an opportunity to work towards making the country self-reliant.

AAPI is a representative body of more than 80,000 Indian-American doctors in the United States (US).

Comparing statistics of various countries, PM Modi said India had performed much better in the fight against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

“As against the death rate of 350 individuals per million in the US and over 600 per million in European nations like the UK, Italy and Spain, the rate of fatalities in India is less than 12,” he said.

“Uttar Pradesh has been remarkably successful in fighting against the coronavirus, And the same is the case with several other states as well,” he added.

“Rural parts of the country have largely remained untouched from this pandemic,” he said while crediting this to the support from the people of the country.

Without people’s cooperation, PM Modi said, “the success would not have been possible in the world’s second-highest populated country — with high density, where the social gathering is a norm of life, large religious and political gatherings are regular, and large-scale interstate migration, India defied the fears of the world’s topmost experts in this regard.”

He also talked about the lockdown measure which was taken to stop the spread of Coronavirus pandemic in March.

“India has been able to save the lives of thousands and lakhs of its citizens because of the timely lockdown,” he said while addressing the Indian-American physicians.

PM Modi also said that this adverse time like Coronavirus pandemic has helped in improving the healthcare facilities. “For instance, at the start of the coronavirus, there was only one COVID-19 testing lab. Now there are 1,000,” he said.

He also underlined that India, which imported most of its personnel protection equipment (PPE) kits at the start of the pandemic, was now almost self-reliant and in a position to export them.

“The country is making more than 30 lakh N95 masks per week. More than 50,000 new ventilators are being made available to the healthcare sector, all made inside the country,” he added.

Prime Minister also praised the doctors present at the occasion saying that he is proud of the achievements and contribution of the Indian-origin physicians across the world in the fight against Coronavirus.

The Indian Ambassador to the US, Taranjit Singh Sandhu, echoed the prime minister and said the early lockdown had helped delay the spread of the deadly virus and save lives.

Appreciating the role of the Indian-American doctors during COVID-19, Sandhu said: “You are the real heroes who have risked your lives and have been out to assist others.”

There is widespread recognition of their contributions in the US, he added.

India’s COVID-19 tally rose 5,28,859 to on Sunday which includes 2,03,051 actives cases and 3,09,712 recovered cases. The death toll due to the virus has reached 16,095 according to data released by ministry of health.

The US coronavirus death toll passed 1,25,000 on Saturday, as cases topped 2,505,590. The country has the highest known cases and deaths worldwide, and is almost 1.2 million cases ahead of Brazil, which has the next-highest number of infections, followed by Russia and India.

Meanwhile, now India is only a lakh cases away from Russia, which is in the third spot behind the US and Brazil.  India continued to be the fourth worst hit among 213 countries.

(With PTI inputs)