Time to invest in pan coronavirus vaccine: WHO chief scientist Swaminathan
1 min read 30 Aug 2021, 11:01 AM IST‘This is the time to invest in a pan coronavirus vaccine, but this will need global collaboration’, says WHO chief scientist Swaminathan
PremiumSARS-CoV-2 has caused the greatest pandemic of the past 100 years and it is still not over. World Health Organization (WHO) chief scientist Dr Soumya Swaminathan said that this is the time to invest in a pan-coronavirus vaccine. Sharing an article of sciencemag.org which talks about vaccines that can protect against many coronaviruses could prevent another pandemic, Swaminathan tweeted: “This is the time to invest in a pan coronavirus vaccine, but this will need global collaboration - on the science & the plans for equitable access. Researchers, companies, govt & multilateral agencies have a role to play."
The global coronavirus caseload has topped 216.3 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 4.50 million and vaccinations soared to over 5.19 billion, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Meanwhile, India saw a single-day rise of 42,909 new COVID-19 infections, which took the total tally of cases to 3,27,37,939, while active cases registered an increase for the sixth consecutive day, according to Union health ministry data updated today. The death toll has climbed to 4,38,210 with 380 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am. The number of active cases has increased to 3,76,324.
On August 28, Dr Soumya Swaminathan congratulated India after the country administered more than 10 million Covid-19 vaccine doses "India achieves 50% coverage (at least one dose) of adult population - > 620 million doses administered, 10 million in the past day! Congratulations to the thousands of personnel involved. Vaccination, along with public health & individual preventive measures will protect everyone!" Swaminathan said in her tweet.
