To tackle the novel coronavirus pandemic, several health protocols have been put in place, which will stay for a long time and people will have to keep wearing masks even after a Covid-19 vaccine is available, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) chief professor Balram Bhargava said on Saturday.
The ICMR chief who was speaking at a webinar hosted by Lucknow's King George's Medical University (KGMU) has said that the country is making a rapid progress as far as the development of a coronavirus vaccine is concerned.
"We have a target to provide vaccine to 30 crore people by July next year. The future course of action will be decided after that. India will develop a vaccine, not just for itself but for 60 per cent of the developing nations. Twenty four manufacturing units and 19 firms will be engaged in developing a Covid-19 vaccine," Hindustan quoted Balram Bhargava as saying.
Masks are here to stay because they work like a vaccine, the ICMR director general has said.
"Mask is like a fabric vaccine. We cannot ignore the contribution made by masks in stopping the spread of Covid-19. We are working on vaccines, five candidates are undergoing trial in India. Out of these, two are being developed by India which three are from abroad. But vaccines won't be enough to end Covid-19. We will have to keep following health and safety protocols," Bhargava added at the webinar titled 'Changing paradigms in Covid-19 management'.
Bhargava also said that masks play an important role in keeping those people safe who have recovered from Covid-19.
"They (masks) may even never go away. The vaccine will give some protection but masks or the fabric vaccine will have to continue. I don’t think we can give up these measures including social distancing," said Bhargava. The ICMR chief has also ruled out the possibility of another lockdown when asked.
PM visits top vaccine pharmas to review progress
The webinar was held on a day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi went on a three-city tour to Pune, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad to personally review the development and manufacturing of the Covid-19 vaccine.
PM Narendra Modi first landed in Ahmedabad to review the vaccine progress. He visited pharma major Zydus Cadila's plant near Ahmedabad to get information about its vaccine development.
After Ahmedabad, PM Modi reached Hyderabad to take stock of the work being done on development of Covid-19 vaccines at pharma major Bharat Biotech.
At 3.20 pm, PM Modi took off for Pune to visit the Serum Institute of India (SII) at Manjari, where he landed at 4.30 pm on the last leg of his three-city vaccine work review visit.
