By Health In Five Writer
Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the Indian citizens not to let their guard down until a vaccination for the dreaded coronavirus has been found. There are now 48.5 lakh confirmed Covid-19 cases with an increase of 94,372 cases on Monday (September 14).
‘Jab tak dawai nahi, tab tak dhilai nahi’ (No carelessness till a medicine is found), the Prime Minister said as he was addressing the virtual house warming ceremony of 1.75 lakh houses built in the rural parts of Madhya Pradesh under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.
At least seven Indian pharma companies, including Bharat Biotech, Serum Institute, Zydus Cadila, Panacea Biotec, Indian Immunologicals, Mynvax and Biological E, are working to develop a vaccine against coronavirus.
Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin developed in association with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is being tested at 12 institutes across India. Animal trials of Covaxin have been successful and the results showed “remarkable immunogenicity and protective efficacy” in the first phase of the clinical trials.
Serum Institute of India has paused clinical trials of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in India as AstraZeneca halted trials after a volunteer developed neurological symptoms.
On Saturday, India recorded a single-day jump of 97,570 fresh cases. A total of 1,201 deaths have been reported from across the country in the last 24 hours.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised him for doing a great job in coronavirus testing, as he continued to slam his Democratic opponent Joe Biden for being a complete disaster in handling the swine flu during the previous administration.
“By far, we’ve tested more people than India, than many, many big countries put together. India is second (in coronavirus testing after the US). We’re 44 million tests ahead of India. They have 1.5 billion people. And Prime Minister Modi calls me and says, what a job you”ve done with testing,” Trump said at an election rally in Reno, Nevada.
Trump is currently making a swing of some of the key states in the West Coast and has been spending a considerable amount of time in Nevada. The president said that PM Modi’s comment on testing being done by the US needs to be explained to the media, which is after him over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I said, explain that to these dishonest people (media people) back (at the election rally). Biden”s record demonstrates that if he had been in charge, when the China virus arrived, hundreds of thousands of more Americans would have died. As vice president, he presided over the worst and the weakest and the slowest economic recovery, since the great depression,” Trump said.
