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Agencies

Great to see India�s leadership in vaccine manufacturing capability: Bill Gates
05-January-2021

Hailing India's leadership in scientific innovation, Microsoft founder Bill Gates has said it's great to see the country's leadership in scientific innovation. The co-founder of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has also praised India for its vaccine-manufacturing capabilities to end the COVID-19 pandemic. Taking to Twitter, Bill Gates said, �It�s great to see India�s leadership in scientific innovation and vaccine manufacturing capability as the world works to end the COVID-19 pandemic."

This is not the first time Gates has hailed India, but, even in the past, the Microsoft founder has praised India for the government�s proactive measures to curb the spread of COVID-19.

According to officials, Gates - in a letter to Modi - said he was glad that the Indian government was fully utilising its exceptional digital capabilities in its COVID-19 response and had launched the 'Aarogya Setu' digital app for coronavirus tracking, contact tracing, and to connect people to health services.

He also expressed the need for India�s cooperation in manufacturing the COVID-19 vaccine.

Earlier, while speaking in a documentary, Gates said that India's pharmaceutical industry will be able to produce COVID-19 vaccines not just for the country but also for the entire world.

In December last year, Bill Gates had warned that the next four to six months could be the worst of the coronavirus pandemic.

"I thought the US would do a better job handling it," Gates, had said while the United States was reporting the maximum deaths due to COVID-19.

"Sadly, the next four to six months could be the worst of the pandemic. The IHME (Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation) forecast shows over 200,000 additional deaths. If we would follow the rules, in terms of wearing masks and not mixing, we could avoid a large percentage of those deaths,� Gates had said.