Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan launches PNB’s campaign to distribute face masks & sanitizers
Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan launched Punjab National Bank’s campaign to distribute face masks and sanitizers to prevent the spread of COVID – 19 in New Delhi today.
S.S. Mallikarjuna Rao, MD and CEO, R K Yaduvanshi, ED, B N Mishra, CGM Operations and Shri Subhash Chandra, AGM and other senior officials of PNB were also present.
Expressing his gratitude to PNB for taking this responsibility when the whole world is suffering from COVID – 19, Dr Harsh Vardhan said, he is happy that PNB is supporting the efforts of the Government in fight against this Pandemic.
He said, steps like donation in PM Cares fund and organising CSR activities for distribution of masks and sanitizers have been taken by the Bank.
He said, use of masks and good hand hygiene promote COVID appropriate behaviour and this is the best ‘social vaccine’ people currently have against the disease.
The Bank is distributing such material in 662 districts throughout the country. He said, India has substantially progressed from just one lab equipped to test for the novel virus in National Institute of Virology, Pune in January to about 1268 labs as of now.
He also added that the country will have the capacity to test one million people within the next 10 to 12 weeks.
Dr. Harsh Vardhan also expressed his confidence that the country will tide over the crisis. He said, India has effectively handled many diseases in the country like smallpox and addressed the challenge of AIDS, Nipah virus, Swine Flu and Zika.
He added that India has one of the lowest Case Fatality Rate in the world
