Health Ministry: Covid-19 vaccine would take more time to reach victims, three in trials

Last updated on February 14th, 2023 at 01:06 pm

On Tuesday, Union Health Ministry secretary Rajesh Bhushan, while briefing media over the country Covid-19 situation and development of its vaccine said no particular drug that  treats corona-virus has been made so far.  As per the government sources three vaccines are in trail phase but would take time to be ready for the corona victims.

Besides, with regard to the availability of the vaccine in India, Dr Balram Bhargava, Director General of Indian Council of Medical Research said,” Need of the vaccine is great and urgent and the pandemic is progressing rapidly at a devastating pace and developing the vaccine takes time.”He added that all across world there are about 141 candidates and 26 of which are in phase trials while India has three candidates at different phase trials currently.

“50 districts currently account for 66% of the Covid-19 caseload in India. The country, on an average, is conducting 479 tests per day per million population. 28 States/UTs are showing a positivity rate of less than 10%”

The Ministry Officials

The recent addition to the vaccines on trials was the Oxford vaccine, being manufactured by Serum Institute of India. It got approval for phase 2 and 3 clinical trial.  Dr Bhargava said that trials would be starting within a week at 17 locations.

With regard to the Covid-fatality rate, Health Ministry showed a optimistic trend as the fatality rate dipped reaching its lowest at 2.10%since the first lockdown started on 25 March, 2020.

“50 districts currently account for 66% of the Covid-19 caseload in India. The country, on an average, is conducting 479 tests per day per million population. 28 States/UTs are showing a positivity rate of less than 10%,” the ministry officials said.

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“We analysed positivity on the basis of three parameters, i.e. measure of positivity in total numbers, measure on the basis of total testing in the country and in individual states and UTs, and measure on the basis of 7 days’ rolling average,”’said Rajesh Bhushan. “The cumulative positivity of India presently stands at 8.89%. In the last week, the country’s positivity rate was 11%, which means that there are still certain states which need focus as the positivity is rising in those states,” he added.

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