Coronavirus: Narendra Modi discusses Covid-19 with United Kingdom, Israel Prime Minister

While India has cancelled most travel visas until April 15 to try and curb the spread of the coronavirus, declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation, the UK has stepped up its preparations to move from the containment phase of the fightback to delaying its spread.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed Covid-19 pandemic and international community's response to it during his phone calls with his counterparts in Israel and United Kingdom, Benjamin Netanyahu and Boris Johnson, on Wednesday and Thursday.

Modi received a call on Wednesday from Netanyahu

“The leaders reviewed the excellent progress in bilateral relations. They also exchanged views on the global situation in the context of Covid-19 pandemic,” Raveesh Kumar, the MEA spokesperson, said.

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The Prime Minister also received a call on Thursday from his UK counterpart.

Modi and Johnson exchanged views on the Covid-19 epidemic. Modi expressed concern on UK Health Minister Nadine Dorries testing positive for Covid-19 and wished her a speedy recovery.

The two leaders expressed their desire to further strengthen the India-UK Strategic Partnership in the new decade. They agreed that it would be useful to formulate a comprehensive road-map towards this objective, the MEA spokesperson said.

The leaders expressed their satisfaction at the cooperation between India and the UK in the field of climate change, especially with reference to the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), he added.