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NEW DELHI: World health The organization’s chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan praised India on Monday for maintaining the coronavirus very low cases and deaths compared to other countries and said it will play an important role in the development of a vaccine for COVID-19.
She said that everyone has to be prepared for the continuous transmission of the infection for “many many months and perhaps for many years.”
Swaminathan said it is not only enough to develop and test the vaccine, but it is also crucial to manufacture it, expand procurement, and get health systems to vaccinate populations.
Speaking on National Technology Day, Swaminathan said: “I would like to congratulate and congratulate the minister and his colleagues for having so far contained the Covid pandemic in India and kept the number of cases and the number of deaths very low in comparison with other countries. ”
All participants, including the Minister of Science and Technology. Harard Vardhan, he addressed the online conference.
“However, we know that it is the marathon that we are running. It is not the sprint, and India and, in fact, everyone has to be prepared for the continuous transmission of the infection for many months and perhaps for many years.” she said.
According to the World Health Organization, as of Monday there have been 39,76,043 confirmed cases of Covid-19, including 2.77,708 deaths.
In India, the death toll from Covid-19 is 2,206. The number of cases is 67,152 in the country.
Swaminathan who He served as Director General of the Indian Council for Medical Research, said that there are many challenges in India in terms of overcrowding, overcrowding in many of the urban areas, and poor access to health facilities in some of the rural areas.
“This is the time, actually, for us to strengthen public health surveillance, primary health care, and strengthen the health workforce,” he said.
On vaccine development, Swaminathan said that many vaccine candidates are developing in India, some in association with other groups and others on their own.
“India will play an important role in vaccine development. The world cannot have enough vaccines for everyone if India is not part of the process,” he said.
It usually takes 10 years to develop a vaccine, but in the case of Ebola, it was done in five years.
“The goal is to get a vaccine (coronavirus) in a year or so. Or even less if possible,” he said, adding that the vaccine development process will require global collaboration such as sharing knowledge, resources, tools. and combining ideas to conduct clinical trials more effectively.
“I am very optimistic that some of these will be successful,” he said.
He added that the most vulnerable people should be identified and vaccines should be administered first. This includes frontline workers and people with comorbidities.
The prioritization framework needs to be developed, he added.
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