Unfazed by the continuous rise in the Covid-19 cases, particularly in the last few days when the infection crossed 60,000 mark daily, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Monday expressed confidence that the country’s coronavirus count will be “under control” by Diwali (which falls in mid November) this year. Vardhan also expressed hope about having a vaccine against Covid-19 by the year-end.
Inaugurating the ‘Nation First’ webinar series, organised by the Anathkumar Foundation, he pointed out that the country was much ahead in tackling the pandemic.
“The Covid-19 will significantly come under control by the Deepavali this year. The leaders and common people effectively worked together to fight the pandemic,” the Minister said.
“But, the virus has taught us a certain lesson, it has taught us there has to be a new normal and we need to be more diligent about, more cautious about our lifestyle...,” Dr Vardhan added.
“We are not lagging behind anyone else in the whole world in our efforts to contribute towards the vaccine against COVID... In India we have about 7-8 vaccine candidates, three of them in the clinical trial phases and rest in the pre- clinical trials and by the end of this year we hope to be able to get a vaccine against COVID,” he said.
The Minister said there was only one lab in February which has now increased to 1,583 nationwide, and out of this more than 1,000 are government labs.
The country is conducting about 1 million tests per day which is way ahead of the target, he said.
He observed that compared to earlier there is no scarcity of PPE kits, ventilators, and N 95 masks now
“The scarcity of PPE kits, ventilators, and N 95 masks is no more now. Every day, five lakh PPE kits are produced in the country while 10 manufacturers are producing N95 masks. 25 producers are manufacturing ventilators,” the Minister added.