'Whole world was concerned about India, but we managed Covid-19 situation': PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday interacted with representatives of NGOs belonging to his Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi via video conferencing. During the interaction, PM Modi speaking about COVID-19 said that India has managed to contain the spread of the virus despite its huge population.

'Many lives have been saved in the state'

"100 years ago, a similar pandemic happened, it is said that back then the population was not this big in India. Even then, at that time, India was one of the countries which had the most deaths. That is why the whole world was concerned for India this time.  Experts were raising questions on India, saying this time also the situation will get worse but what happened? Uttar Pradesh, a state with population 23-24 crores, with support of its people overcame all these apprehensions," the Prime Minister said.

Comparing the situation in Uttar Pradesh to that of Brazil - the second-worst affected country due to the virus, PM Modi said, "A huge country like Brazil, with a similar population to Uttar Pradesh, has suffered around 65,000 deaths due to COVID-19. While in Uttar Pradesh, around 800 people have lost their lives, it means many lives have been saved in the state."

'It can lead as an example'

Prime Minister Modi said that many steps have been taken and are being taken to benefit the people of Varanasi and their indigenous trade. “With proper support, Varanasi can emerge as a leading export hub. It can lead as an example in making India self-reliant (Atmanirbhar),” he said.

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Later in the day, PM Modi will deliver the inaugural address at India Global Week 2020. It is a three-day virtual conference, being held from July 9 to July 11, themed 'Be The Revival: India and a Better New World', will have 5,000 global participants from 30 nations being addressed by 250 global speakers across 75 sessions.

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India reported the highest single-day spike of 24,879 new positive cases and 487 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of COVID-19 cases in the country to 7,67,296, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

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(with ANI inputs)