Harsh Vardhan said notices circulated before the country’s first coronavirus case was detected.
Highlight
- “India is making efforts like other countries”: Harsh Vardhan
- Prime Minister Modi personally monitors the Covid situation in the country: Mr. Vardhan
- All the top ministers have fought this battle alongside the prime minister, he said.
New Delhi:
Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan has said that there are expectations that a coronavirus vaccine will be available in the country early next year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said, has been personally monitoring the COVID-19 situation in the country.
“India is making efforts just like other countries,” Dr. Harsh Vardhan told Rajya Sabha today. Prime Minister Modi, he said, is handling the COVID-19 situation “meticulously.”
“Under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, a group of experts is looking into it and we have advanced planning. We are hopeful that early next year, a vaccine will be available in India,” he said in his Upper House speech on the situation of the coronavirus in the country.
Since January 8, the prime minister, ministers and state health ministers have been addressing the situation, the health minister said.
“All senior ministers have fought this battle alongside the prime minister,” he said, adding that detailed notices were circulated even before the country’s first coronavirus case was detected on January 30.
“For that case an extensive contact tracing was carried out. For the first case, 162 contacts were traced. This is how we started our contact tracing story,” added the Union minister.
In response to a question from Congressional MP Anand Sharma regarding his earlier statement that the closure imposed in March prevented between 14 and 29 lakhs of cases, the minister said it was based on data provided by six scientific agencies.
On Monday, the first day of the parliament’s monsoon session, the minister said that India avoided a “major crisis” when the coronavirus outbreak began due to the nationwide lockdown imposed by Prime Minister Modi. The blockade prevented up to 29 lakh of cases, “congratulations to Prime Minister Modi”, the minister had said.
Over the past 24 hours, India reported a record daily increase of 97,894 fresh coronavirus infections, bringing the country’s total past the 51 lakh mark. With 51,18,253 infections, India is the second most affected country in the world, second only to the United States, which has a case burden of around 66 lakh.
For the first time, the number of active cases in the country has crossed the 10 lakh mark, data from the Ministry of Health shows.
With 1,132 virus-related deaths in 24 hours, the total number of deaths stands at 83,198.
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