New Delhi: India is currently conducting around five lakh COVID-19 tests every day. The plan is to double the number in next one-two months, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said Thursday. The health minister made the statement during the launch of a compendium on ‘Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Technologies for COVID-19 Mitigation’. Harsha Vardhan also said India’s recovery rate of over 64 per cent is the best in the world while the fatality rate is nearly 2.2 per cent. The minister also hailed the scientific community for fighting alongside the medical community in the battle against the virus.
“The first COVID-19 case in India was detected January 30. It has been six months since then but the fight against the virus is still on. Despite the vastness of India and its population, the war against the virus has been successfully taken up in every corner,” Vardhan informed.
Vardhan also talked about ramping up the health infrastructure in India. The minister said six months ago India was importing ventilators. However it has now developed a capacity to manufacture three lakh ventilators.
“Most of the ventilators are being made within India now. India is supplying hydroxychloroquine drug to nearly 150 countries,” Vardhan stated.
“In April, we used to conduct 6,000 tests daily. Today, we are conducting over five lakh tests every day. Our plan is to take it to 10 lakh tests daily in 1-2 months and we are working towards it,” the minister added.
There was a time when exports related to COVID-19 were stopped to meet the requirements within India. However, Friday, in the Group of Ministers (GOM), there will be a presentation on what can be again opened up for the exports, informed Vardhan. “This is possible because of the efforts undertaken by India to ramp up production of critical equipment,” added the minister.
Vardhan asserted that while global efforts are on to find a vaccine against the novel coronavirus, India is not behind.
“We have been able to do detailed sequencing of over 1,000 coronavirus genomes. India was among the five nations who could isolate the virus,” Vardhan informed.
Referring to human trials of vaccine candidates being conducted by Bharat Biotech and Zydus Cadila, he said India is among the very few countries to reach that stage.