Harsh Vardhan also expressed his hope to have the Covid vaccine by the end of this year. (PROCEEDINGS)
Bangalore:
Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Sunday expressed hope that Diwali will have “very significant control” over COVID-19.
“… hopefully in the next few months, maybe for Diwali, we will have a very important control over the coronavirus,” Vardhan said.
Addressing the Nation First webinar series hosted by the Ananthkumar Foundation, he said that experts like Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty and Dr. CN Manjnath will probably agree that after some time this too will become endemic as many other viruses that have reached the world in the past.
“But, the virus has taught us a certain lesson, it has taught us that there has to be a new normal and we must be more diligent, more cautious with our lifestyle …”, he added.
Mr. Vardhan also expressed his hope to have a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of this year.
“We are not lagging behind anyone around the world in our efforts to contribute to the COVID vaccine … In India we have around 7-8 vaccine candidates, three of them in clinical trial phases and the rest in clinical trials and by the end of this year we hope to get a vaccine against COVID, “he said.
The minister said there was only one laboratory in February, which has now risen to 1,583 nationwide, and of this more than 1,000 are government laboratories.
The country is conducting about 1 million tests per day, which is well ahead of the target, he said.
Noting that there is no longer a shortage of PPE equipment, fans and N95 masks in the country, Vardhan further said that five lakhs of PPE equipment are produced in the country every day, while 10 manufacturers produce N95 masks and 25 producers manufacture fans.
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