New Delhi: After receiving a poor Covid Rapid Test Kit from China, India has ordered 9.5 lakh Covid kits to South Korea. A subsidiary of this company will start making kits in Manesar. Let us tell you that India had ordered 7 lakh Covid rapid test kits from China, whose quality is very poor. After receiving complaints from the states about this, the Indian government has decided to send the kits back to China.
Speaking to our diplomatic correspondent Siddhant Sibal, South Korea's Indian envoy Sripriya Ranganathan said that its aim is to 'get the most accurate price, the most perfect quality and the lowest delivery time'. He said that Indian Foreign Secretary, Korean Deputy Foreign Minister and other members of Indo-Pacific countries talk about the steps being taken to deal with the crisis every week. These are the key parts of the conversation…
Question: How is the Indian Embassy in South Korea taking care of Indian citizens?
Answer: Our embassy in Seoul has been continuously associated with the Indian community since the beginning of the epidemic in Korea. We have 13000 people in South Korea, with a large number of students. Keeping in mind the advice of the Korean government, we have focused on avoiding social distancing and travel etc. To keep in touch with our community, we have used video conferencing, website and social media platforms. Officials hold video conferences every week with representatives of all our community associations and with the leaders of the student union, so that we can tell them about the advice from time to time from the Korean government and we can also know what kind of Are facing difficulties. We have assured them that we are with them at the time of their trouble. I think we have been able to convince our people that they need not panic. No positive cases have been found so far from our own community in Korea. We have been helping those in our community who need masks and hand sanitizers.
Question: How are India and South Korea facing a Covid crisis together?
Answer: I think in this time of crisis, India and Republic of Korea have done a lot for each other. Our governments are already talking regularly. Our Prime Minister and the Korean President spoke on 9 April, in which they explained their views on the subject to each other, discussed solutions to deal with the crisis in India and Korea, and both agreed that the need At the time of the two governments will increase all necessary assistance given to each other. The Indian Foreign Secretary, the Korean Deputy Foreign Minister and the rest of the Indo-Pacific countries interact with each other every week. We talk on ways to get out of crisis soon. As far as medical supplies are concerned, we think Korean companies can meet our needs in terms of COVID test kits and protective clothing. ICMR has already approved the products of some Korean companies and agencies of both our central government and state government have placed orders for about 9.5 lakh test kits. We are expecting that we will get about 2 million test kits from South Korea in the coming few weeks. We are also hoping that Korean companies do construction work in India so that our needs are supplied in India itself. A Korean company has even started in this direction. The Indian subsidiary of this company has started manufacturing COVID test kits from its Manesar plant. This company got its license from ICMR on 14 April and its production has started from 20 April. I also hope that Indian and Korean research institutes and scientists work together so that both governments can help in dealing with this epidemic.
Question: Talking of PPE or ventilator, what are we buying from South Korea?
Answer: Right now we have talked to Korean companies to get a large number of COVID 19 test kits, and this is possible because many Korean companies have got certificates for manufacture and they are authorized for export by Korean government. Huh. Apart from this, we are also looking at how Korean companies can meet our country's needs like protective clothing, masks, gloves, ventilators etc. The Embassy is working on the basis of the requirements that are being conveyed by ICMR to our Ministry. We are trying to find companies that are qualified and have the necessary background and experience to supply these things. We are constantly informing ICMR about the goods available here, their technical instructions and their prices. And when ICMR describes the products that are most appropriate, and which our people need, we have further conversations with the companies that allow us to get the best prices and the best quality goods from these companies, at least Could meet in a short time. We are working closely with our ministry, ICMR, central government agencies and state government agencies for this.
Question: What do you think about the South Korean model and do we have any Indian model?
Answer: I think the South Korean government's 3T strategy - testing, tracing and treating has been very effective to fight the epidemic. He has used the technique quite a lot in his efforts, which includes aggressively testing at the beginning. He used GPS, CCTV and his credit card data to track the activities of his Corona-positive patients, and spread this information to more and more people through messaging systems, local offices and social media platforms. As a result, the number of newcomers to Korea has come down dramatically and today there are less than 10 cases a day, which I think are quite good. At the same time, we have gained respect in Korea for the kind of steps we have taken in India, including public curfew and lockdown across the country, because given the size of our population, our efforts are expected to be very high These measures will help us to prevent the virus in the country.
Question: How is Indian diplomats working, is it not easy for diplomats too?
Answer: It is certainly a very difficult time for all of us in the Embassy. The common methods we used to reach Koreans and others were not possible in this situation. We have been very disciplined and clear that we have to follow the advice given by the Korean authorities from time to time, including social distancing, hand sanitizer, using masks etc. As far as possible, our local employees have been asked to work from home, thereby reducing the risk of public transport and keeping them safe at home. We are using technology to do as much work as possible so that we do not lose the momentum that we have gained by working in the last few months. We have interacted not only with the Indian community through technology but also with people spread across the country, we have spoken with people coming back to India through video conference and telephone. Apart from this, our cultural center has also remained very active. We are conducting online yoga and dance classes. We are also trying to make online classes available for Indian cooking. Our yoga teachers are also making efforts to keep everyone healthy in the embassy. We do yoga every day just before lunch so that we can increase our immunity.
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