CoronaVirus: SAARC countries leaders hold video conference, Modi announces $ 100 million

New Delhi, March 15, 2020 Sunday

South Asian Association for Regional Co-Operation (SAARC) countries met each other on Saturday evening at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's initiative to fight the Corona virus.

In the meantime, PM Modi advised to set up a Covid-19 Emergency Fund and announced $ 1 million from India for this. He also informed about the steps being taken by India.

The SAARC leaders thanked PM Modi for the initiative and together spoke about the challenge.

The challenge is to fight and win

Prime Minister Modi said that there are fewer cases of corona virus infection in SAARC countries with 20% of the world's population but we have to meet this challenge by all countries. He said that together we have to fight against this challenge and win.

Prime Minister Modi said that the Covid-19, the corona virus, has recently been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. He said that SAARC countries are less contagious.

There are about 150 cases. Addressing delegates from SAARC countries, Prime Minister Modi informed India about the steps being taken to prevent corona virus.

1400 Indians and citizens of neighboring country were airlifted

He said that be prepared but there is no need to panic, this is our mantra. We are running an awareness campaign on TV, print and social media. We are increasing the capacity of our system which includes training of medical staff.

Now we have 60 labs to check. In the meantime, Prime Minister Modi said that India safely evacuated about 1,400 Indians and citizens of neighboring countries trapped worldwide. We also saved our own people trapped abroad.

Which country leaders joined

The video conference led by Prime Minister of Nepal KP Sharma Oli, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapakse, President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani, Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, Prime Minister of Bangladesh, and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bhutan, Prime Minister of Bangladesh. All these people informed about the steps being taken to prevent the corona virus.