Coronavirus cases yet to peak or plateau in India, says AIIMS director Randeep Guleria

We are more than 8 months into the pandemic and the novel coronavirus continues to wreak havoc at an alarming rate. As we write this, India has already recorded close to 50,000 fatalities and 2,397,403 coronavirus cases so far. While the nation continues to remain the third worst-hit nation by the highly infectious pathogen in the world (after the US and Brazil), experts believe that coronavirus cases in India have still not hit their peak or even plateaued.

Dr Randeep Guleria, country’s renowned pulmonologist and the director of All India Insitute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) maintains that even after the rapidly rising coronavirus numbers, COVID-19 cases are yet to peak in India. As per an agency report, Dr Guleria said, “These are trying times. It has tested the resilience of the nation. We have not reached the peak or started plateauing as far as cases are concerned.”

Guleria, who is also heading the core team of coronavirus experts, shed light on India’s manufacturing capabilities and how it may be on an advantage in this battle against the novel coronavirus. He noted, “We have the capacity to manufacture a large number of vaccines and that is the commitment that the government and manufacturers have given -- that we will be able to upscale our manufacturing capacity not only for our own country but for the entire world.”

Pune-based Serum Insitute of India is one the largest vaccine manufacturers in the world by volume and has entered a partnership with The Vaccine Alliance and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to manufacture up to 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine for low-income countries including India.

As of now, there are three vaccine candidates in different stages of clinical trials in India. The first one being the vaccine candidate developed by Oxford University, which is in the last stage of clinical trials. The second one is India’s first homegrown vaccine ‘Covaxin’ which is in Phase I/II of clinical trials in 12 medical institutes across the nation. The third one is a DNA-based vaccine by drug firm Zydus Cadila which is aiming to complete its Phase II trials in the next two months.

It should be noted that developing a vaccine (fit for human use) is a long, complicated process which usually takes anywhere from 10 to 15 years, at least. However, scientists and medical experts across the globe have worked at a record-breaking rate, developing more than 160 vaccine candidates in the span of just 8 months. Out of the 160 plus potential candidates, 27 have already reached the crucial stage of human trials. Lauding the commendable joint effort by researchers and manufacturers across the globe, he said, “What the pandemic has shown is the resilience that the world has and the way researchers, manufactures and industries can come together to overcome any hardship we face as a planet.”