India to play big role in vaccine manufacturing: Health Ministry

While informing that two indigenous vaccines are undergoing human clinical trial, Officer-on-Special Duty in the health ministry Rajesh Bhushan said that India will play a key role in Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing. While highlighting the number of recoveries the country has witnessed so far, he pointed out that India's recovery rate is showing positive trends.

New Delhi: Reiterating that India will play a big role in Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing, Officer-on-Special Duty (OSD) in the health ministry Rajesh Bhushan informed that 2150 volunteers are undergoing the clinical trial of two indigenous Covid-19 vaccines in the country.

"Two indigenous Covid-19 vaccines are undergoing phase I and II clinical trials. For one vaccine 1150 people have been volunteered and 1000 people have volunteered for the second indigenous vaccine," said Bhusan said at a press conference.

He informed that 24 vaccine candidates across the globe are under clinical evaluation whereas 141 vaccines are in the pre-clinical evaluation stage.

"There is one vaccine candidate each in USA, UK and China which are undergoing phase III clinical trial of Covid-19 vaccine," said Bhusan.

In the global platform, India will play a big role in the distribution of COVID-19 vaccine under WHO's Access to COVID Tool Acceleration (ACT) system.

"We will certainly have priority of Covid-19 vaccine which, of course, need to be administered on a larger scale," said Bhusan.

He informed that health ministry has received as many as 131 life insurance claim for Rs 50 lakh.

"In 20 cases money of the insurance has already been distributed. In 64 cases, the process is on and 47 cases are with the concerned State Government," informed Bhushan.

The maximum contribution has come from states like Maharashtra, Delhi and Telangana.

The government has earlier announced Rs 50 lakh insurance for health care workers who die on the line of duty.

Referring to West Bengal and Bihar, Bhushan said that health ministry is in constant touch with the state government so that Covid-19 could be managed and contained.

Referring to WHO's stand on community transmission of COVID cases, Bhushan ruled out the possibility of such transmission.

"In our case, the infection is traceable and it is a localised one. In 80 per cent cases, it is also possible to trace down the contact of new COVID cases in 72 hours," said Bhusan.

He further informed that out of 739 districts in India, 50 districts carry 80 per cent of the COVID caseload.

Bhushan further said that India's Covid-19 recovery rate is 1.9 times higher than the active cases. The number of active cases at present is 5,28,242 against the total recovery number of 10,20,582.

"Recovery rate is continuously rising. It was 7.85 per cent on April 2 and now it's 64.44 per cent," Bhushan said.

He said that 16 states have a recovery rate higher than the national average of 64.44 per cent. The recovery rate in these 16 states varies from 68 per cent to 89 per cent.

He said that India's case fatality rate has also decreased to 2.21 per cent from 3.33 per cent on June 18.

"Effective clinical management leads to a decrease in case fatality rate in India which is one of the lowest against the world average of 4.0 per cent," said Bhusan. Russia also registers the lowest case fatality rate of 1.6 per cent.

24 states and UTs in India including Assam, Kerala, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar have lower case fatality rather than the national average.

Till date India tested 1,81,90,382 through its 1321 laboratories.

Bhushan, however, said that states like Maharastra, Andhra Pradesh, Puducherry, Odisha and Karnataka have case positivity rate of more than 10 per cent.

"21 states and UTs have positivity rate less than 10 per cent as suggested by WHO for 140 tests per million population per day," said Bhusan.

Referring to the Unlock 3 guidelines issued by the Home Ministry on Wednesday, Bhushan said that standard operating procedure (SOP) will be issued soon as far as removing certain restrictions are concerned.

The Unlock 3 guidelines apart from removing night curfew have also suggested opening Gymnasium and Yoga classes from August 5 with certain conditions.

As far as the restriction on religious places is concerned, Bhushan said that an SOP has already been issued in this direction in June.

This assumes significance as on August 5 Ayodhya will witness "bhumi pujan" for the Ram temple.

The SOP issued by the health ministry in June said that social distancing needs to be followed in religious places.

It said that shoes and footwear to be preferably taken off inside one's own vehicle. The SOP also advised not to touch statues/idols/holy books etc.

It further said that physical offerings like Prasad distribution or a sprinkling of holy water etc, will not be allowed inside the religious places.