Bill Gates hails declining number of coronavirus cases in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Billionaire businessman and philanthropist Bill Gates has acknowledged that Pakistan is flattening the COVID-19 curve as the number of cases are declining in the country.

In an interview with US media, Bill Gates hailed the coronavirus situation in Pakistan and said like Europe, they worked hard to bring down the number of cases.

Gates endorsed Pakistan’s policies and said India by contrast doesn’t look great. “The COVID-19 situation in India is similar to that of South America.”

The government has attributed the decline to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s lockdown strategy. In a statement on Twitter, the PTI government said Bill Gates has shared his view about the coronavirus situation in India and Pakistan.

It said the numbers in Pakistan are declining but going up in India, adding that this is the difference between a visionary leader like Prime Minister Imran Khan and Modi who preaches hate.

Today on CNN, @BillGates shared his views about COVID-19 response and stats of Pakistan & India. Pakistan’s numbers are coming down while India’s numbers are going up. This is the difference between PM Imran Khan (a visionary leader) & @narendramodi (politician who preaches hate) pic.twitter.com/HQrZZnBzON

— PTI (@PTIofficial) August 9, 2020

In an earlier interview, Bill Gates showed dissatisfaction over the coronavirus testing system in US because it takes so long to return results. Coronavirus tests across the US regularly take more than a week to return results, frustrating public health authorities who rely on timely testing data.

The Microsoft founder said he thinks medical providers should only receive payment for tests if they return results within 48 hours. For years, Gates had warned that the US was unprepared for a massive pandemic.

Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation have pledged millions of dollars to help fund vaccine research for a number of deadly diseases including COVID-19.

Bill Gates said that he is optimistic that a vaccine for COVID-19 will be developed soon but the pandemic will last another year.

He said that “for the rich world, we should largely be able to end this thing by the end of 2021, and for the world at large by the end of 2022.” He said that this is due to the scale of innovation on new vaccines and therapeutics that is taking place.

Gates also shared concerns that countries like the US and Russia that are moving full speed ahead could rush to approve a vaccine that isn’t safe and effective.

Gates and his wife Melinda have invested millions in the development of vaccines and would be allocating $150 million towards distributing coronavirus vaccines to low-income countries in 2021.