New Delhi: The Union Health Ministry on Thursday clarified that 15 August deadline for an indigenous Covid-19 vaccine is "only to expedite duly approved clinical trials without compromising on safety and security concerns".
During the press conference, Rajesh Bhushan, Officer on Special Duty, Health Ministry said, "Please don't read something which is not there in DG-ICMR's letter. Letter's intent is only to expedite duly approved clinical trials without compromising on safety and security concerns."
Earlier, ICMR DG Balram Bhargava wrote a letter to Bharat Biotech and principal investigators of medical colleges to complete the trial procedure of indigenous COVID-19 vaccine in a fast track method so that results of a clinical trial can be launched by August 15. Bhushan further said that DCGI has permitted two vaccines to go in for phase 1 and 2 of clinical trials.
"Bharat Biotech and Cadila Healthcare are developing vaccines. Both vaccines completed animal toxicity studies after approval. DCGI has permitted these two vaccines to go in for phase 1 and 2 clinical trials. Trials are yet to begin. Hope it begins soon.
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Bharat Biotech had recently received a nod for a clinical trial of its vaccine - Covaxin. A total of 12 institutes have been asked by the ICMR to fast track clinical trials of the vaccine as it is being considered the topmost priority projects which are being monitored by the government.
"We are the second-most populous country of the world. Despite a population of 1.3 billion people, India has been able to manage COVID-19 relatively well. If you look at cases per million population, it still remains amongst the lowest in the world." He said that we have 15 deaths per million population whereas we have countries where it is 40 times as much.
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"Today we have 538 cases per million population. It's as per World Health Organization (WHO) situation report. Case per million population in some countries are at least 16-17 times more than what it is in India. We have 15 deaths per million population whereas we have countries where it is 40 times as much." Bhushan said.
"When we talk of a caseload of COVID-19 in India, it is 2,69,000 people. This tells us that at the end of the day we've managed a situation where our health care infrastructure is not unduly burdened and is not creaking due to the pressure," added Bhushan.
India reported the highest single-day spike of 24,879 new positive cases and 487 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of COVID-19 cases in the country to 7,67,296, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Out of the total number of cases, 2,69,789 are active, 4,76,378 have been cured/discharged/migrated and 21,129 have died.
