Research on coronavirus vaccine moving at fast pace: Health Ministry

As the cases of coronavirus continue to rise in India, the Union Health Ministry on Tuesday said that research is going on at a fast pace on the development of a vaccine for the virus and the government is moving in the right direction.

The information was given by Joint Secretary in Health Ministry Lav Agarwal during the daily media briefing on coronavirus situation in the country. 227 positive cases were reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of confirmed cases in India to 1,251, including 32 deaths, he said.

The ministry further informed that it is implementing strategies for rigorous contact tracing and cluster containment, adding that wherever even a single case of COVID-19 is reported, it is as good as a hotspot for the government.

"With over 1,200 cases of COVID-19, the number of hotspots in the country has increased. The government is using cluster containment strategies and doing rigorous contact tracing in these hotspots to check the virus from further spreading," Agarwal said.

Stressing that the government will further increase the availability of protective gear for medical professionals, he said the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has identified suppliers in South Korea, Turkey and Vietnam to improve logistics in India during the COVID-19 crisis.

Asking people not to panic, the Ministry of Health clarified that not all people need to wear masks. "If you have a cough, then only you can wear masks. But the most important thing is to keep social distancing at all costs," said Aggarwal.

He also sought cooperation from the public to fight the pandemic and added that the cases of coronavirus have also increased rapidly in the last few days because people are not giving timely information.