Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Harsh Vardhan chaired a meeting on COVID Appropriate Behaviour with Heads and Directors of Autonomous Institutions of Department of Science and Technology and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research yesterday. Dr Vardhan applauded the great work carried out by all scientists, even beyond their mandates. 

He confirmed that there are 9 vaccine candidates in the world which are in advanced stages, in India, three vaccine candidates are developing well with one of them in the advanced Stage-III Clinical trials and two others in stage--II clinical trials.

He expressed the hope that India will soon have indigenous production of Coronavaccine. Pointing out that the fight against COVID is not over yet, Dr Vardhan cautioned people against complacence, carelessness and casual attitude towards combating COVID-19. He further added that the next two and half months are going to be very crucial for us in our fight against Corona because of the winter season and the festival season. He said, it becomes the responsibility of every citizen to not let our guard down and follow COVID appropriate behaviour to curb spread of the infection.

Urging people across the country to follow the clarion call of the Prime Minister as part of the ‘Jan Andolan’ launched on the 8th of this month, the Union Minister appealed to the people to follow COVID appropriate behaviour.

On India’s fight against COVID-19, Dr Vardhan said, India is continuously recording new milestones in treatment of Covid. He said, the recovery rate is the highest in the world and the fatality rate is among the lowest and the active cases are constantly declining. He said, the government has successfully ramped up testing capacity to meet the requirements. He said, India also has now become self reliant in terms of masks, PPE kits and ventilators.