'India has 7-8 Covid vaccine candidates; hope for vaccine by 2020 end': Health Minister

As efforts progress around the world to develop the COVID-19 vaccine, Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan on Sunday expressed hope about having a vaccine against COVID-19 by the end of this year. While addressing the Nation First webinar series organised by Ananthkumar Foundation, the Union Minister asserted that the Coronavirus situation may come under 'very significant control' by Diwali.

'We are not lagging behind anyone..'

"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," Vardhan said.

The Minister further 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.

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'Very Significant control' over COVID-19 by Diwali

Dr Harsh Vardhan during his address also added that experts like Dr. Devi Prasad Shetty and Dr. C N Manjnath would probably agree that the situation may also turn into an endemic like other viruses in the past. However, he stated that India may have a chance to bring it under control in the coming months ahead of Diwali.

"Hopefully that in the next couple of months, maybe by Diwali time, we should have a very significant control over the coronavirus," Vardhan said. "But, the virus has taught us a certain lesson, it has taught us there has to be a new normal and we need to be more diligent about, more cautious about our lifestyle," he added.

Earlier on Saturday, the union minister expressed satisfaction at the coordination between Centre, states and union territories to contain the spread of COVID-19. He stated that the country's case fatality rate is at its lowest at 1.81 percent.

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COVID-19 sitituion in India

India has recorded its worst-ever single-day spike of 79,457 new coronavirus cases, taking its total caseload to 3,621,245, with 960 fatalities reported on Sunday, the country's death toll now stands at 64,617 with 2,774,801 recoveries. The five most affected states by the total tally of cases are Maharashtra with 780,689 cases, Tamil Nadu with 415,590 cases, Andhra Pradesh with 414,164 cases, Karnataka with 327,076 cases, and Uttar Pradesh with 225,632 cases. Delhi has recorded 2,024 coronavirus cases, taking its tally to 1,73,390.

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(With agency inputs)