When will coronavirus cases hit the peak in India?
As India crossed the 65-lakh mark of total coronavirus cases, with more than 75,829 people testing positive for the infection in the last 24 hours (as per the latest government data), the country continues to fight tooth and nail against the deadly contagion. While scientists and medical experts across the globe are working day and night to accelerate the process of launching a safe and effective vaccine, the virus has already resulted in more than 1,038,315 worldwide.
"A vaccine for COVID-19 can be launched by early 2021"
As the entire world desperately waits for a vaccine to put an end to the menace and restore some semblance of normalcy, the director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Dr Randeep Guleria believes that a vaccine for COVID-19 can be in the offing by early 2021, if things go as per plan.
While a vaccine may be launched for public use in the first quarter of 2021, the logistics of production, distribution on such a large scale and mass-immunization is something that will need a lot of planning and co-ordination amidst the distributors and the states.
Is India anywhere near hitting the peak of COVID-19?
For the unversed, hitting the peak during the pandemic simply means that the new number of infections have begun to level off and may start to dip, instead of following the upward trend. It is important to understand that hitting the peak is not a single-day event, instead, the cases need to follow a downward trend for at least two weeks after witnessing a sharp spike in coronavirus cases.
Next two weeks are crucial: AIIMS Director
When asked about the tentative timeline about when the nation might hit the peak, Dr Guleria, who was speaking at India Today Healthgiri Awards, said that cases have started to stabilise marginally in the past couple of days, however, this trend needs to continue for at least two weeks more, to come to any definite conclusion.
25 crore Indians likely to be vaccinated by July 2021: Health Minister Harsh Vardhan
Union health minister Harsh Vardhan in his weekly address Sunday Samvaad touched upon the fact that the focus is on fair and equitable distribution of the coronavirus vaccine, once it is ready. He also highlighted the approximate timeline of the beginning of the mass-inoculation process in his weekly Sunday Samvaad. The health minister noted, “There is a high-level expert body going into all aspects of vaccines. Our rough estimate and the target would be to receive and utilise 400 to 500 million doses covering approximately 25 crore people by July 2021.”