New Delhi [India], November 22 (ANI): Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Sunday said that the world is living in "a phase of a silent war" as it continues to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic adding that the time has come for modern medicine and India's "traditional system to go together with an integrative approach" to impact lives.

"We have not seen the Spanish Flu, World War I, and World war II. But we are living in a phase of a silent war. Over 100 million people perished. And in many cases, they could not be visited by their dear ones during the last moments of life," Vardhan said while addressing the Boston Center of Excellence for Health and Human Development here today through Video Conference.

"Their last-rites and funerals were also had to be done very humbly. And those millions who survived also have many complications, besides the financial burden put on them," he added.

The Union Health Minister, while speaking about India's strategy to deal with COVID-19 said that COVID-19 would not be the last pandemic the world faces.

"It is not the first one and definitely not the last one. But this COVID 19 will soon be a past episode of the 21st century. Our treatment protocol for COVID patients is well defined now. Fewer and fewer people infected are dying. We will have vaccines available very soon, and the cases will significantly go down in the next few months," he said.

As per the latest updates by Johns Hopkins University, the global caseload currently stands at 58,295,905 and 1,383,788 fatalities due to the virus. (ANI)