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Covid-19 vaccine: India expected to have one in next few months, says Vardhan
Health Minister Harsh Vardhan also said to fight against COVID-19 the social vaccine of maintaining a distance of six feet should be followed, along with regular washing of hands and wearing of masks and face covers, especially in public places
Amid the buzz to develop a potential Covid-19 vaccine for distribution in India, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Thursday said that India is expected to have a COVID-19 vaccine in a few months and the country should be in the process of delivering it to people in the next six months.
Vardhan made the comments at the Annual General Meeting of Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS) and St. John's Ambulance.
"We are very much into the vaccine development process...in the next few months at the most we should have a vaccine and in the next six months we should be in the process of delivering the vaccine to the people of India," he said, reported news agency PTI.
Vardhan said to fight against COVID-19 the social vaccine of maintaining a distance of six feet should be followed, along with regular washing of hands and wearing of masks and face covers, especially in public places.
"Maintaining a distance of six feet, regular washing of hands and wearing of masks/face covers, especially in public places can save lives along with livelihood, which has been the ultimate goal of government," he said.
He said this potent social vaccine can stop the disease and it also forms the foundation of the 'Jan Andolan' against COVID-19.
Vardhan said IRCS, through its blood centres, has gone out of its way to ensure that there is no shortage of blood for the people in need.
"Innovative ways of promotion of voluntary blood donation coupled with dedicated efforts of the staff, managers and volunteers have resulted into the 24x7 operations of blood services across the country," he said.
Meanwhile, India's COVID-19 tally went past 71 lakh with 66,732 fresh cases, while the number of people who have recuperated crossed 61 lakh, pushing the recovery rate to 86.36 per cent, according to the Union health ministry data updated on Monday.
The country's COVID-19 caseload stands at 71,20,538. The death toll climbed to 1,09,150 with the virus claiming 816 lives in a day, the data updated at 8 am showed.
With inputs from PTI
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First Published:15 Oct 2020, 09:24 PM IST
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