Mandaviya raises WHO's Covid-19 death report at global health forum

New Delhi: Expressing his disappointment over the 'unscientific' way of reporting Covid-19 deaths by World Health Organisation (WHO), Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said at the World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva that the report published by the WHO has ignored India's robust mechanism to register deaths in the country.

"Central Council of Health and Family Welfare, a constitutional body having a representation of health ministers from all states within India passed a unanimous resolution asking me to convey their collective disappointment and concern in this regard," Mandaviya said in his speech at the WHA on Monday. The 75th World Health Assembly (WHA) has kicked off in Geneva, Switzerland, to focus on major issues including the response to the continuing Covid-19 pandemic and the global health for a peace initiative.

Covid-19 is one of the top priorities of this year's WHA, which has been the first of its kind held in Geneva and attended by delegates in person since the outbreak of the pandemic more than two years ago.

In a historic address at the 75th session of the WHA, Mandaviya exhorted India's commitment to build a more resilient global health security architecture. "As highlighted by India's Prime Minister, there is a need to build a resilient global supply chain to enable equitable access to vaccines and medicines, streamlining WHO's approval process for vaccines and therapeutics and strengthen WHO to build a more resilient global health security architecture," he said, adding that as a responsible member of the global community, India is ready to play a key role in these efforts.