Coronavirus will be under control by Diwali: Dr Harsh Vardhan

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Sunday expressed confidence that the country’s Covid-19 count will be “under control” by Diwali this year.

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. He inaugurated Nation first webinar series organised by Ananth Kumar Foundation,” the press release said.

He further said that the health officials had held a meeting much before the first Covid-19 case was reported in India.

“Later on, Prime Minister Narendra Modi formed a committee led by me which has already met 22 times until yesterday,” he said.

“There was only one laboratory in June by February, which has now been increased to 1,583 nationwide. 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,” the health minister 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,” he added.

He said that vaccine trials are in full swing, with three clinical trials and four pre-clinical trials underway.“We are expecting vaccines to be ready by the end of the year. It is because of the farsightedness of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that we could reach until here,” he added.

Vardhan also expressed hope about having a vaccine against COVID-19 by the end of this year.

"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.

As India created a global record yesterday with the highest single-day rise of nearly 79,000 Covid-19 cases, in some respite, the country also recorded the last 5 lakh recoveries in just eight days in comparison to preceding 5 lakh recoveries which were recorded in 10 and 9 days.

India yesterday set a record when it reported 78,761 new infections in 24 hours -- the world's highest single-day rise even as it continued to open up the economy.

Home to 1.3 billion people, India is already the world's third-most infected nation with more than 3.5 million cases, behind the US and Brazil. It has also reported more than 63,000 deaths, according to the official health ministry toll.