New Delhi : In a good news for millions of Indians, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday said that vaccine against coronavirus COVID-19 is expected in India by early 2021. The Union minister added that experts are currently busy chalking out plans on how to roll out the distribution of the vaccine in the country.
“We’re expecting that early next year we should have vaccine in the country from maybe more than one source. Our expert groups are formulating strategies to plan on how to roll out the distribution of the vaccine in the country”, said Harsh Vardhan during Group of Ministers meeting.
Harsh Vardhan made the statement at a time when India’s COVID-19 caseload surpassed 71 lakh-mark. As per the Ministry of Health data released on Tuesday, the coronavirus cases in India stands at 71,75,881 including 8,38,729 active cases, 62,27,296 cured/discharged/migrated cases & 1,09,856 deaths.
Meanwhile, the coronavirus cases in India recorded its lowest number on Tuesday (October 13, 2020) after a period of nearly two months. The number of positive cases recorded in the last 24 hours stands at 55,342. In the fast few weeks India was consistently recording cases above 70,000 mark.
India recorded around 55,000 cases on July 31 (55,078), August 4 (52,050) and August 18 (55,079). India is showing a trend of declining average daily cases over the past five weeks. On October 9, active cases fell below the 9 lakh mark and the number of fresh cases has been declining ever since.
Maharashtra continues to be the worst-hit with a total of 15,35,315 cases including 40,514 deaths; followed by Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.
Total number of samples tested up to October 12 is 8,89,45,107 including 10,73,014 samples tested on Monday alone as per the Indian Council of Medical Research report.
On a day when India reported its lowest single-day spike in COVID-19 cases in nearly two months, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan raised hopes of a coronavirus vaccine arriving early next year.
Speaking during a meeting of a Group of Ministers, Vardhan said the government was expecting a vaccine to treat COVID-19 early next year and that too from more than one pharmaceutical firm. The government machinery is currently working on making the vaccine reach the people in an effective manner, he added.
“We’re expecting that early next year we should have vaccine in the country from maybe more than one source. Our expert groups are formulating strategies to plan on how to roll out the distribution of the vaccine in the country,” the minister said during the GoM meeting.
His remarks came as India registered a single-day rise of 55,342 coronavirus infections, one of the lowest 24-hour surge in months.
The government data at 8 am today showed 706 people succumbed to COVID-19 over the last 24 hours.
India’s COVID-19 caseload as of Tuesday stands at 71,75,880, with death toll at 1,09,856.
Active coronavirus cases in the country are now at 8,38,729, with 62,27,295 recoveries so far, the health ministry data showed.
Meanwhile, as India’s health minister raised hopes of a COVID-19 vaccine, a late-stage study of COVID-19 vaccine being conducted by Johnson & Johnson had to be paused as a participant developed an “unexplained illness”.
The company said in a statement yesterday that illnesses, accidents and other so-called adverse events “are an expected part of any clinical study, especially large studies”.
India on Tuesday recorded its lowest single-day spike of 55,342 fresh coronavirus cases — nearly half of what the country was reporting around two months ago, pushing the total number of infections to 71.75 lakh.
The country has reported around 55,000 fresh cases in the last 24 hours for the first time since August 18, and has also seen less than 90,000 new infections for the fifth consecutive day since the September surge.
The daily case count in the country has seen a sharp drop from the earlier 90,000-plus figure reported in September.
The death toll climbed to 1,09,856 with 706 more people losing their lives due to the highly-contagious virus in the last 24 hours.
There are 8,38,729 active coronavirus cases while 62,27,296 people have been cured, according to the latest data released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
For the fifth day in a row, active cases have remained below nine lakh, taking the country’s recovery rate to 86.8 per cent.
According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a total of 8,89,45,107 samples had been tested up to October 12. Of these, 10,73,014 samples were tested on Monday.
India is the second worst-hit country by the coronavirus in the world after the United States while it is in the third spot in terms of global fatalities after the US and Brazil.
The total number of cases of coronavirus in India had crossed 70-lakh mark on October 11.
Maharashtra continues to be the worst-affected state by the coronavirus outbreak followed by Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
According to the health ministry, more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.
“Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research,” the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.
